Mischief Managed
by potato-magic
Summary: The growing-up adventures of Teddy Lupin and his friends who deal with growing up in a post-Voldemort wizarding world. Friendship, love, loss, politics and angst in a modern marauder escapade.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1- July 2009**

**Holly:**

The Wiggins were not an old family, or a powerful family, or a rich family. If anything they were a rather ordinary family (ordinary by wizard's standards that is), who found much contentment from raising post-delivering owls. They owned a reasonable piece of land outside of Dartmouth, Devon, where their owls could stretch their wings and take in the fresh air. No Wiggins had ever wanted to go on any sort of adventure, but that suited them just fine for at least four generations. Four generations of Wiggins had merrily gone about their business in the hills of Devon, that is until Holly Wiggins.

Holly had nearly made it to the big rock when she heard her mother's call. She sighed, and turned back towards her house. That afternoon she had been walking up along the creek picking wild flowers and herbs. The creek ran through her family's lot and it was her favorite place on hot summer days like this one. She had spent most of her summer splashing in the water and climbing the surrounding trees just like she had done for every summer she could remember.

She came in through the backdoor into the kitchen. Her mother, Mary Wiggins, was waiting for her when Holly got there; she was sitting at the kitchen table popping the ends off the green bean Holly had helped pick that morning. Her mother took one look at her when she came in, "Holly! You're a mess." Holly looked down and realized that was probably true. She was barefoot and wearing a dress that more resembled an old sack that had been tied around her waist with an old leather belt. She ran a hand through her tangled strawberry hair, pulling a leaf out that must have got caught in her long curls. There was mud on her knees and under her short fingernails and she could feel a sunburn on her cheeks, as she smiled at her mother. "I was picking flowers."

Holly put her basket on the table, beside her mother.

"They're lovely, Holly." Mary said, smelling the blooms from where she sat. "What are you going to do with them?"

"I'll press any I don't have, but I got some of them for Virginia, she said she was going to teach me some potions stuff."

Mary was a little dubious, "Virginia said that?" Her sister was a talented potions mistress, but she didn't seem the type to help an eleven year old girl with anything, but from the way Holly's face lit up, Mary began to think Virginia must have said something to her.

"She said she could show me how to make a potion that could change my hair whatever colour I wanted, or one that can turn dandelions to roses. I think I want to be a potions mistress when I grow up, I could go and work for Aunt Virginia." Holly was grinning, there was a glimmer in her eye that her mother knew meant trouble.

"You can be anything you want, dear."

"Even if I want to be a hippogriff?" Holly gave a cheeky smile that Mary couldn't help but smile at.

"Do you know what hippogriffs like to do?"

Holly looked confused, "What?"

"They like to help their mothers with dinner."

"I don't know if I want to be a hippogriff anymore." Holly mused, sitting down to help her mother with the beans.

They talked idly for a few minutes before they heard a familiar tap on the glass. Holly turned to see a barn owl sitting on the ledge outside of the window. "I'll get it," Holly said as she got up to open the window. The bird flew in and dropped the letter on the kitchen table before going back to perch on the window sill. "Just wait here," the girl said as she went into the pantry to get a snack for the owl. Mary picked up the letter, recognizing it instantly, "Holly!"

"What?" Holly came out of the pantry, biscuit in hand.

"You got your letter!"

"What letter?" Holly went over to the owl, handing him the biscuit.

"Your Hogwarts letter!"

"What!" Holly went over to her mother and ripped open the letter.

_Dear Miss. Wiggins,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31._

_Yours sincerely,_

_Minerva McGonagall_

_Headmistress_

"I'm going to Hogwarts!" Holly was nearly shaking with excitement as she read the letter again.

"I'm so proud Holly!" Mary embraced the girl. "Go tell your father, I'm sure he will be thrilled." Holly was grinning wildly as she ran out to see her father.

* * *

**Phoenix:**

Muggles… Muggle things… Muggle ideas… So incredibly sick of muggles! When you have magic, why do you live like you don't?

Phoenix was brooding as he washed dished by hand while his magical parents sat in the living room having after dinner drinks with a pair of muggles! It's not that he could do the dishes with magic, but that wasn't the point.

He huffed, putting the last plate on the drying rack. He dried his hands, noticing they were pruned adding to his distain towards "the good old fashion way". He was done with muggles.

His mother was a muggle born, and that was fine. He loved his mother; she was one of the best witches he had ever met (though he hadn't really met too many due to his mostly non-magical upbringing). His father though came from a magical family, with many of his relatives having married into well-known magical families, but his father was a muggle sympathiser. He worked for the ministry in the Department of Muggle Relations, meaning he spent his days talking to non-magical politicians in regards to the relationship between the magic and muggle worlds. He used to be a professor in muggle studies, but after the second rise of Voldemort he had quit and never returned. Phoenix was convinced his father wanted to be non-magical, which always annoyed him. Why ignore a gift if you have it?

Phoenix tried to sneak up stairs so that his parents wouldn't force him to sit there and listen to talk about Football and Muggle politics. He went out of the kitchen and tried to slink past the living room to the stairs as quietly as possible. He got past the door and quickly bolted up the stairs, still trying to keep quite.

He flung himself on his bed, pressing his face into his pillow which smelt like fabric softener; his mother must have changed his sheets. He heard the distant murmur of the conversation down stairs, which was oddly comforting. He began to lull.

"Aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" He sat up quickly. What was going on? "An owl John! An owl!" The muggle woman was shrieking. Phoenix jumped up, snickering. The poor muggle lady scared of the owl, which he guessed had just flown in through the front window to deliver the post. He practically flew down the stairs and came skidding into the living room.

The muggle lady had ducked and covered, looking like a trembling ball in a frock. Her husband, John, Phoenix assumed, was backed into the opposite corner of the room from the owl that was perched indifferently on the fireplace. Phoenix's parents were apologizing to their guests assuring them they had no idea that an owl would be coming for a visit. While the adults were tending to one another Phoenix went over to the owl, offering it an arm to perch on. The owl obliged and Phoenix took it out of the room so he could take the letter from the bird and avoid the questions of why an owl was delivering mail. He let the owl out the kitchen window.

When Phoenix looked down at the letter he was surprised, it was for him. He never got mail. Turning it over, he looked at the seal. A loin, a snake, a badger and a bird? He broke the seal and carefully read the letter.

_Dear Mr. Flannery,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31._

_Yours sincerely, _

_Minerva McGonagall_

_Headmistress_

He was going to Hogwarts… He was going to be a wizard, a real wizard.


	2. Chapter 2

**Note:**  
**Okay, so the character I said was going to be in this story, will be in this story. Teddy should be showing up next chapter, I'm just giving you some background and setting all this nonsense up. **

**Also, please review, and be brutally honest (like that dress really does make you look fat kind of honest)- do your worst, I can handle it. **

**Chapter 2- Late August 2009 **

**Holly:**

"So when you get there you get sorted into a house?"

"Yeah, you sit on this little stool and they put this hat on your head and it tells you what house you're in, but don't worry it only hurts for a minute." The older boy had to try so hard to not smile fiercely.

Holly's eyes widened, "It hurts?"

"Oh yeah, it's got to get into your brain you see, so it makes a few little holes so it can see in there." The look on the girl's face just made this better. "Don't worry though it fixes it all up afterwards for you,"

Holly looked at her brother, really hoping he was saying this to scare her and that she wasn't really going to have a hat drilling into her brain. "You're a Hufflepuff, right Tommy?" Her curiosity overrode her fear.

"Yeah, so was Mum and Dad, so was Aunt Virginia and Uncle Rolly and Uncle Carl and Stephan and Monica and Daniel and Lisa... Everyone in the family really…" He tried to think of someone in the family who had not been a Hufflepuff and drawing a blank. Holly looked puzzled, "Am I going to be a Hufflepuff then?"

"Probably, that's how it seems to work in families."

Holly bit her lip, thinking, "What if I don't want to be a Hufflepuff?"

"It's not really a choice, Holly."

She watched the older boy as he brushed his hair out of his eyes. "You need a haircut."

Tommy frowned, "Mum keeps saying that… I like it."

"You look like a mop," Holly smiled at his annoyed look.

"Have you looked in a mirror, Holly?" Now it was her turn to look annoyed. She didn't think she looked like a mop, not today at least. Their mother had braided her hair this morning to avoid the mop look specifically. Tommy leaned back against the wall, stretching his legs out over the snitch sheets on his bed. He sighed, "It's gonna be weird having you at school."

"I won't even acknowledge you if it'll ruin your bad boy, quidditch captain image." She smiled at him cheekily. He gave her an unamused look, "I don't have an image"

Her smile grew even more. There was a hint of mischief in her eye, which never ceased to worry Tommy. "What's that look?" He tried to sound casual.

"I was just thinking of the look on all the girls' faces if I decided to tell them about-"

"Please don't say the gnome incident…"

She laughed at him, "I was going to say the incident with Mr. Harper, but the gnome one's even better."

He glared at her, "If you bring up the gnome thing, I'll tell all the firsties about Doug." From the panic he could see in her eyes he knew he had her.

"I think we've come to an agreement" She said. They shook on it.

Tommy looked at his little sister. It was weird to think of her going to Hogwarts, she seemed too young. She always looked younger than she was, which he assumed didn't help. It was her eyes, they were too big and blue and… doe-ish. He would have to look out for her, he knew that much.

**Phoenix:**

Phoenix slumped against his dresser, starring at the still mostly empty trunk on his bed. He had no idea what to bring, he didn't really have anything to bring, and everything he needed he was going to get later that week in Diagon Alley. For some reason he couldn't shake his nerves, no matter how hard he tried. He was excited, God was he ever, but still there was this dull throb of anxiety that lurked right behind his eyes. His parents assured him that it was going to be fine, but that just made him more uneasy about it if that was even possible.

What if he didn't make any friends? What if no one liked him? What if he was rubbish at magic? What if he wasn't magic at all and they had somehow made a mistake? What if he failed all his classes? What if he got lost in the castle? What if he got sorted into Slytherin?

There were too many things that could go wrong. He was too busy chewing on his lip to notice that his door had gotten pushed open the slightest bit.

"Phoenix?" Phoenix jumped, hitting the back of his head on a dresser drawer. His mother pushed the door open, "Are you okay?"

She looked down at him, concerned as he rubbed his head.

"I'm fine, you just surprised me."

"I'm sorry, I was just wondering how the packing was going." She frowned as she saw the empty trunk on his bed.

He stood up, "I don't know what to bring…"

"You should bring some clothes, so you aren't just wearing your robes every day, maybe a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt to two, and a jumper, the castle can get a bit drafty. And you'll need pajamas and socks and underwear." She saw the unenthusiastic look on her son's face. "Why don't you bring your camera too?"

Phoenix looked at his mother excitedly, "Could I?"

She smiled at him, "How else can you send us pictures of all your adventures?" This worked as she had hopped, he began to pack. She watched him, folding up anything he haphazardly threw into his trunk.

Phoenix loved to take pictures, magical or not. That was the one muggle thing he loved to do, was to take muggle pictures, the unmoving pictures made you guess how people were feeling, or what really was going on. He opened up one of his drawers and pulled out two cameras, on magical and one muggle.

"I shouldn't bring my muggle camera, should I?" He looked a bit disappointed. "What if they think I'm not good at magic cause I use a muggle camera?"

She looked at her son, grinning, "They will be so amazed that muggles have cameras that they won't have time to think anything else."

"What? Why wouldn't they know muggles have cameras?"

"Most people raised in magical houses don't know much about muggle things." She seized the lesson teaching moment, "That's why we need to promote muggle awareness."

He appreciated the muggle awareness lesson less than she did, "So they will like it?"

She couldn't help but smile at the twinge of hope in her son's voice. "They will want you to take pictures just so they could watch them sit still."

Phoenix's face lit up, "Really?"

His mother nodded, smiling. He put the cameras down on the end of his bed, grabbing a bag out of his closet to put them in. His mother watched him, feeling a sort of proud sadness. Her baby, her only son was going off to school. She suddenly felt tears rising up. Phoenix looked over at his mother to ask if he should bring his toque and saw that she was just about to cry.

"What's the matter? Are you okay?" he was concerned about his mother, who he had only ever seen cry a handful of times. She pulled him into a tight, but gentle hug, "I can't believe you're going to be going to Hogwarts… It was just yesterday that you were running around in diapers."

Phoenix tried reassuringly patting her back, "It's gonna be okay. I'll come back for Christmas and Easter, and I promise I'll write you as often as you want."

"You better write Phoenix Flannery, at least every other day! I want to hear everything, no matter how silly it is!" She was holding his shoulders now, looking into his face. Two pairs of brown eyes met, both filled with love and a slight shimmer of worry, both trying to blink back uncharacteristic tears.

"You'll do wonderful, Phoenix, I know you will."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3- September 1, 2009- The Hogwarts Express**

**Holly: **

"So, you've just got to run at that brick barrier, it's a piece of cake." Tommy said as he leaned against his trolley, flipping his fringe out of his eyes.

Holly eyed up the barrier… It was made out of brick… If Tommy was trying to trick her it would end rather painfully.

"Tommy! You said you'd take her through!" Mary came up to them, looking a little more flustered than usual. She had been trying to help Daniel and Lisa (her middle two children) get their trunks out of the car after the boot decided it was tired of having an expanding charm on it.

"I was, I don't think she believed me!" Tommy shot a look at Holly.

Mary sighed; she looked older today than Holly had ever seen her look.

"Why don't you lot go through the barrier and show her?"

"Alright," Lisa piped up first, she hastily lined her cart up and ran right at the brick wall, passing through it with ease. It was only Lisa's second year, so she still was relatively excited by these sorts of things. Daniel and Tommy followed quickly after.

Holly looked at her mother. "I'm right behind you," her mother insisted, nudging her youngest towards the barrier.

Holly ran, flinching as she got to the barrier and not opening her eyes until her cart hit someone standing on the platform.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, I closed my eyes when I though… but the barrier… and I'm sorry." A boy about her age smiled as she apologised profusely.

"Don't worry about it. I did the same thing." He gave her a cheeky grin. "I'm Sawyer."

She smiled at him, "I'm Holly" she said as they shook hands. Her mother watched her, happy that Holly had met someone already.

Mary searched the crowd for four blond heads in the sea of cloaks and trunks and children. She saw Daniel first, giving him a hug and a quick peck on the cheek, noting his embarrassed blush. Then she said her goodbyes with Lisa and Tommy, reminding Tommy to look out for his siblings, to which he mustered up his most grownup looking nod and "Yes, Mother."

Meanwhile Holly had learned Sawyer was a first year who was determined to end up in Gryffindor.

"My families been in Hufflepuff a long time… I guess I'll be one too." she said, suddenly feeling a bit self-conscious about it. He smiled though which alleviated that a little. "I read that Hufflepuff is nice… Sound a bit like hobbits to be honest, all comfy and safe."

"Hobbi-what?" She looked at him, a bit confused.

"Oh it's from these muggle books."

"Oh cool," She didn't know too much about muggles, but they seemed like nice enough people.

"Holly!"

Holly turned towards her mother who was just through a group of boys who were talking about Quidditch, "Yes?"

Mary made her way over to her daughter and hugged her warmly. Holly returned the affection, trying hard not to cry in front of the boy she'd just met. Her mother didn't have the same reservations about crying in the middle of the train station.

"Be safe, and be smart, and try not to get into trouble, and write, and… and have fun." Mary hugged her daughter again.

"I will. I promise." Holly hugged back, not particularly wanting to let go of the safety and warmth that only mothers can provide.

The whistle blew.

"We should go now," Sawyer felt bad for interrupting the moment, but he didn't want this Holly girl to miss the train.

Holly turned to Sawyer trying to sound more confident than she actually was, "Let's go."

As she stepped up into the car, she turned back to look at her mother again and waved.

She was off going to school, to Hogwarts.

She followed Sawyer onto the train, to go on what seemed like an awfully big adventure.

**Phoenix: **

Phoenix's parents had insisted in getting to the station with plenty of time to spare. They had gotten to the barrier a good three quarters of an hour before the train was set to leave. He had said good bye to his parents, just wanting to get on the train. He was nervous and the last thing he wanted was to deal with his mother's anxieties about him leaving. After much assuring that he would be completely fine he got on the train.

He went into an unoccupied compartment, with the intention of keeping it unoccupied (besides himself of course). He wanted sleep. He had been too bust worrying to sleep the night before. What if he missed the train? What if his parents decided he couldn't go? What if they really did make a mistake about accepting him? What if the train crashed? He realized he was a mess.

After tucking his trunk away he took the seat beside the window, leaning against the side of the compartment and pressing his cheek against the cool glass of the window. A bit of fringe fell into his eyes, which he brushed away. He should have gotten a haircut before he left, his mother had been harassing his to, but it just never seemed to have happened. His flaming red hair was usually very well maintained; otherwise it would just look silly… not that his ginger-ness didn't already make him look a bit silly, but might I digress. In typical Flannery fashion he was pale, with just the slightest hint of freckles on the bridge of his nose. The only redeeming factor he saw was his eyes, green and well proportioned. They were his mother's eyes, only naïve.

Those eyes glazed over as he stared out the window onto the bustling platform. His neck was at an odd, nearly uncomfortable angle, but he was too tired to move. Students and parents, trunks and trolleys criss-crossed the platform as Phoenix looked on, more concerned with keeping his eyes open than on the scene on the other side of the glass. Eventually the war with his eyes ended… his eyes won.

**Holly: **

Holly and Sawyer walked down the car, trying to find an empty compartment… or at least one that wasn't full. They came to one that only had one occupant, a young boy who was immersed in a book, his dark curls making a rather elegant curtain between his bent head and the page he was reading.

"Hey, can we sit here?"

The boy jumped, he looked over at them a little surprised they were there, "Oh, sure..."

Holly watched him move his bag off the seat opposite him, stuffing the book into the bag and gesturing for them to sit. They obliged, taking the two seats opposite him.

"I'm Teddy Lupin" the boy said, smiling at them.

"I'm Sawyer and this is Holly." Holly gave a small wave, which Teddy reciprocated, "It's nice to meet you two. Where are you from?"

Sawyer spoke first, "I'm from London."

Teddy's looked at him, "Really? I've always wanted to live in London, my godfather lives there. I live in Devon… unfortunately."

"I'm from Devon too, Dartmouth actually." Holly piped up, "Where abouts do you live?"

"Between Ottery St. Catchpole and Exeter mostly,"

"You're just up the road." Holly smiles to match him.

"I guess I am." He says, his eyes flicking brightly. "Would I know your family?"

"The Wiggins? I doubt it."

Sawyer giggled, "Your name's Wiggins?"

Holly flushed and looked at the floor, "Yeah…"

"Holly Wiggins? I like it, it sounds…" Sawyer pauses to think of the right word, "…cute?" She pouted, she had always been called cute, to her it seemed more demeaning than endearing.

"What were you reading just now?" Sawyer sensed an annoyance in Holly and wanted to change the subject.

Teddy blushed a little, "Oh it's our defence against the dark arts textbook… I know it's kind of lame, but I find it fascinating"

"I was reading that the other day!" Sawyer gave him a reassuring smile, "It's really interesting stuff."

"I really like the bit about verdimillious," Teddy was smiling now too. They continued their D.A.D.A banter while Holly watched out the window. They were pulling out of the city now, and the buildings of London were turning to suburbs which, after a while, turned into countryside.

**Phoenix: **

"Shh… You're going to wake him up." said one female sounding whisper.

"Well were else are we going to go? Vanora kicked us out of her compartment and all the rest are full." replied another, more pleading sounding female whisper.

"There was that one down on the end…" said the first.

"The one with the boy who had the sketchy eyes? Because, I'm not going to go sit with him, I'd rather sit in the hall." whined the second girl.

"Which is what we're going to do. Come on." said the first, sterner sounding one.

"I don't want to sit in the hall" the second girl sounded as though she was pouting, "I'm going to wake him up and see if he'll let us sit here if we promise to keep quiet."

"Leave him alone Phil…"

Too late, the girl named Phil was tapping the already half-awake Phoenix on the shoulder. He wished they would have just left instead of standing there bickering about leaving. It was too late though, if he continued to pretend to sleep the poor girls would probably assume he was dead or something which would cause them to make more noise. He groaned.

"Sorry to bother you, but there are no empty compartments and we were wondering if we could share yours. I promise we'll be quiet and you won't even know we're here…" it was the second girl who said all of that very quickly.

"S'a'ite" Phoenix said, as his accent and general sleepiness melded together.

"What?" he could feel the first girl looking at him. He sat up sleepily. "Is' all right, si-down"

After rubbing his eyes and yawning he looked at the girls who were in his compartment. They looked similar, maybe twins, definitely sisters. Both had matching brown hair and cute button noses, one was maybe an inch taller than the other, but had a slightly rounder face, while the shorter one, had a more oval face and a slightly poutier look.

"I'm Agnes" the slightly taller one said as she looked Phoenix over. What a terrible name, Agnes.

"Phoenix" he said with the most genuine smile his still half asleep brain could muster. "What's your name?" he said to the other girl.

"Philippa Summers… or Phil" said the pouty one he figured was the second female voice. Phoenix felt bad for the girls, Philippa and Agnes? Their parents must not have liked them much… though he figured he was being a pot calling the kettle black with a name like Phoenix.

"Is your name really Phoenix?"

"Yes, Phoenix Walberg Flannery. Is your name really Agnes?" he saw a flash in the girls eyes. He'd managed to piss her off after about two seconds.

"Would anyone really choose to call themself Agnes Elizabeth Pandora Summers?" Agnes did make a very good point. Phil giggled.

Phoenix realized it was going to be a very, very long ride.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4- September 1, 2009- Hogwarts**

**Phoenix: **

As soon as the train pulled into the station, Phoenix was up and out of his compartment faster than a stampeding hippogriff. The train ride had been painfully long, between the snide comments that Agnes kept making towards him and the giggling that Phil did persistently (most of which was directed at Agnes' remarks).

When the first years all piled into the boats Phoenix made a heroic effort to avoid Agnes and Phil. He ducked into the boat of three unsuspecting eleven year olds.

"Please let me sit here, please" he realized he must have looked like a complete lunatic, but one more minute with that girl and he would have avada kedavrad himself (had he known how).

"Umm… sure mate?" A dark haired boy looked at him a little puzzled.

Needless to say the boat ride was a tad bit awkward, and Phoenix felt a familiar knot of worry in his stomach. Any anxiety he had though melted away at the sight of the castle, stark and stoic against the fading light. It was beautiful in an imposing way, if such a way could exist.

When the boats stopped on the other side of the water, Phoenix hopped out, thanking the other occupants of the boat and stumbling along after the other first years up towards the castle.

The boy was awestruck by the castle and the grounds and the lake they had just crossed and the feeling he got from all of it. It all was, for lack of a better term, magical.

The first years passed a large marble obelisk looking monument which made Phoenix feel uneasy. He found himself starring at the pallid structure a bit mesmerized, though to be honest he didn't know why.

He walked with the other first years, which looked just as nervous as he felt. They passed through the large front doors into the main hall. At the top of the set of (rather impressive looking) stairs stood a small man. After all of the first years had filed into the hall, the man let out a slight squeak. Everyone turned to look at him, some giggling at the little man.

The little man called Flitwick explained that they were going to be sorted. A different sort of worry began to fill Phoenix- what if the hat messed up and he ended up in a house he didn't belong in and no one would like him? Bravery? Patience? Intelligence? Cunning? He was none of those… What if the hat couldn't sort him and told him he may as well leave? Oh God, it wasn't even his first day and he was already going to get kicked out.

After Flitwick finished speaking he lead the new students into the great hall.

There was the expected gasp and awe as they filed into the hall. It was so beautiful. The starry night ceiling and magical candles, the large tables and vaulted gothic ceiling; it was amazing and wonderful and unlike anything any of the first years had seen before.

Phoenix's amazement at the ceiling seemed to push his anxiety back a little bit, which was probably the only reason he managed to get up to the front of the room and stand with the others.

**Holly: **

The castle was even more wonderful than Tommy had told her. It looked so majestic set against the Scottish night sky. It was amazing. She looked over at Sawyer who was also gawking at the building.

"It's awesome isn't it?" she couldn't help but smile. The look on Sawyer's face was wonderful.

"It's… amazing." His voice sounded as though it was off somewhere else, in his imagination she assumed.

She looked over at Teddy who was matched her smile. The three of them were nearly shaking with excitement as the boats stopped on the other side of the lake. They jumped out of the boat and walked excitedly up towards their new home.

They moved over the lawn onto a path which led to the large front doors. They followed the others into the main hall. It was hard to take it all in. Holly looked around the space. There were about fifty first years standing in the hall, looking around with the same mix of awe and nervousness that Holly, Sawyer and Teddy were feeling.

It was a small class this year, they had all been born during the war. When people are in constant fear of dying they generally are not inclined to want children (at least that's how Tommy had explained it).

There was a squeak that resembled "May I have your attention please?"

Everyone looked around to the stairs where a very small man was standing. The man was the deputy headmaster who was named Professor Flitwick. He explained to all of them what the houses were, how to gain (and lose) house points, and how the sorting ceremony would work. He then led the anxious group into the great hall.

Holly felt excited as her eyes swept over the hall. She scanned the faces of all the other students who watched them with mild curiosity. She spotted Lisa, Daniel and of course Tommy, who was giving her a rather comical wave. She smiled and waved back feeling some of the butterflies in her stomach calm down.

Once they got to the front of the hall she took a place between her two new companions. Teddy seemed to be about to burst with excitement, whereas Sawyer was starting to look a little green.

"It'll be okay." She said to Sawyer, hoping that may help a little bit. He had been raised by muggles and it seemed he didn't really have any idea what to expect.

Flitwick stood holding a ratty old hat, which began to sing. Teddy leaned over "My Uncle Ron says that it sings a different song every year. He says that's what it does the other 364 days, it writes next year's song." They all giggled.

After the song Flitwick pulled a scroll from his robes, opening it to read the names. His voice broke over the low rumble of post-song chatter and the hall went silent.

"Boris Abbott!" the small man called out. A rather smug looking boy came forward and sat on the stool. The hat was placed on his head for not even two seconds before the hat called out "Slytherin!"

A round of applauds and pats on the back followed as Boris made his way to an empty seat at the Slytherin table.

"Carlisle Anders!"

Oh God! It was in alphabetical order. Alphabetical order was the bane of Holly's existence. She was always one of the last names called, and when her chest felt as though it was about explode from anticipation it was hard to stand there and wait. Why were there so many names at the front half of the alphabet?

"Phoenix Flannery!"

She looked up. The name sounded familiar… Flannery?

"Gryffindor!"

Why did that name sound so familiar? This was going to bug her.

"Theodor Lupin!"

Teddy moved from beside her, up to where Flitwick was waiting with the hat. Holly watched, curious what house her new friend would be in… if they were friends. They seemed to be friends.

The hat rested on the boy's head, his face screwed up in concentration. Or maybe that was the pain that Tommy had told her about? She had forgotten about that until now. She rubbed her head subconsciously.

"Gryffindor!"

Holly felt a slight sinking feeling. He was going to be in Gryffindor while she was going to be in Hufflepuff, she knew it. Oh well they might still have classes together.

"Philippa Summers!" Holly could have sworn the last girl's name had been Summers too. They did look similar, they had to be twins. Two more Slytherins-

"Ravenclaw!" It was rare that siblings got sorted into different houses, let alone twins…

"Sawyer Thompson!" Maybe sawyer would be with her in Hufflepuff? "Gryffindor!" She supposed not… There was that nice looking boy that got sorted into Hufflepuff- the McKinley wasn't it? The one that was on the boat with them…

"Holly Wiggins!" Oh no…

She walked forward and sat on the stool, closing her eyes as the hat was put on her head. She waited for the horrible drilling pain, but was met with a voice instead.

_Another Wiggins, eh? The baby of the family. _

She kept thinking Hufflepuff, Hufflepuff, Hufflepuff, hoping that the hat would take her suggestion into consideration.

_I have to admit this is the first time I've ever actually gotten a request for Hufflepuff. _

My whole family have been in Hufflepuff, I should be too, she thought.

_No, you shouldn't, there is something different about you. You're not like your siblings. You're more resourceful, cunning and determined. More intelligent too, but don't tell them I said that. _

She felt panic at that assessment. The way the hat had said it made it sound an awful lot like a Slytherin description. 

_That's because it is a Slytherin description, I think you will do well in- _

No! No! No! No! She was panicking, anything but Slytherin. She had only heard bad things about was worried; Tommy had always talked about how much he hated Slytherins, what if he would start to hate her too?

_You really don't want to be in Slytherin? _

Not in the slightest, she thought.

_Than it will have to be-_

Hufflepuff?

_No, _

"Gryffindor!"

"What!" Holly's eyes opened to a round of applauds from the hall. She felt the hat being taken off her head as she was pointed in the direction of the Gryffindor table. She looked over to where her siblings were sitting at the Hufflepuff table. They were all cheering for her and the three of them were giving her matching grins.

She walked over to the Gryffindor table and took a seat beside a Teddy Lupin who patted her on the back.

"Welcome to Gryffindor." Sawyer said with a cheeky smile.

"You too," Holly couldn't help but smile too.


	5. Chapter 45

******_This is sort of a Chapter 4.5 really. I just got excited and posted the first half of this chapter already... Please read, enjoy, review and partake in cuddles. Have a good day._**

**Chapter 4.5 (well technically 5, but shut up) **

**Phoenix: **

Phoenix had spent most of the feast talking about muggle music with a third year who was sitting beside him. Just when he thought he had gotten away from muggle talk. At least the boy was nice and understood his dislike of the Black Eyed Peas.

He hadn't realized how tired he was until he was following Pricilla (a sixth year Gryffindor prefect) up to Gryffindor tower. She was nattering on about rules as they walked. Rather than listening to the rules Phoenix was trying to make a mental note of how to get to the tower as they went with the others up another set of stairs and around a corner. Pricilla stopped in front of a portrait of a fat lady in a pink dress.

"Mollycoddle" the prefect said, and the portrait swung open. They walked through a rather comfy looking common room which was buzzing with the expected start of term excitement.

The prefect pulled out a list, "Alright boys, so, Aubrey, Flannery, Lupin, and Thompson you're up that way. And girls- so Bagby, Ellis, Finnigan, Lennox and Wiggins, you lot are up that way. Alright? All your trunks should already be up there."

After an evening of milling around in the common room talking to the other first years, Phoenix followed his roommates up to their room he began to think. What if his roommates didn't like him? Or what if they snored and he wouldn't be able to sleep for the next seven year? Or what if one of them tried to steal all his things? Or what if one of them was some sort of crazy ax murderer just waiting to strike… though that would be a bit silly, they were wizards after all, and he doubted a wizard would bother with an ax when wands are a lot less messy.

His things were at the bed closest to the door; at least he could make a hasty retreat, right?

"Phoenix, right?" he turned and saw Lupin boy smiling at him.

"Yeah. It's Lupin, right?" he felt awkward forgetting the boy's first name, even though the other boy didn't seem to be the least bit bothered by it.

"Yep." Lupin smiled at him… was that boy always smiling? "I like your name where's it from?"

"My parents?" Phoenix wasn't sure how to respond to the question, but judging from the laughter that response was wrong.

"Nice one, but really." The Aubrey boy was still giggling. What was the Aubrey boy's name again? Why was he so bad with names? Right, his name…

"I was born on May 2, my parents said that it was the day the wizarding world began to rise out of the ashes after the war. It's kind of a silly name." Phoenix was blushing so much that his cheeks nearly matched his hair.

"You were really born on May 2? 1998?" Aubrey said.

"Yeah…" he knew that people always had something to say about that.

Aubrey looked at him with a sort of uncalled for admiration, "That's so cool."

"What was May 2?" the brown haired boy whose name Phoenix couldn't remember spoke up. He had to have been a muggle born.

"It was the end of the war, the battle of Hogwarts, the fall of Voldemort…" Aubrey said, even though the boy still looked very confused. "You know who?"

"Who?" The brown haired boy didn't seem to have any clue.

"You don't know about Voldemort?" Phoenix was now certain that the boy was a muggle born.

"Let's not ruin our first night here by talking about that." Lupin piped up, there was something in those blue eyes that Phoenix couldn't read, but told him it was best to drop the subject.

"Probably a good idea." said Aubrey.

"But I want to know." The boy piped up.

"No you don't, Sawyer… I promise." Lupin assured the boy- Sawyer. The four of them all looked around

Sawyer must have seen what Phoenix had because he promptly dropped the subject. Awkward silence ensued.

"Do you want to see something cool?" Lupin said trying to end the deafening silence. Of course all the boys jumped on the opportunity.

The boy smiled as his wavy dark mane waivered and changed to a clean brown cut. His eyes turned from a stunning blue to an honest brown. Facial features rearranged and changed in size and shape until coming to rest.

"Bloody hell…" Sawyer was looking at a slightly lankier version of himself. "How did you do that?"

"It must have been some sort of ployjuice potion…" Aubrey looked at the replica Sawyer.

Lupin smiled, "Guess again."

The boy's features changed again to mirror the blonde haired Aubrey.

"He's a Metamorphmagus…" Phoenix looked at the second, grinning, Aubrey.

"Ding, ding, ding! Other Aubrey, get this boy a licorice wand!" The second Aubrey was practically glowing with excitement.

"I'm going to guess a Metamorphmagus is someone who can change their appearance?" Sawyer said, still looking a little shocked.

"Yeah. It's really rare though." Phoenix said.

"Well what do you actually look like?" Sawyer seemed a bit troubled by this.

"It's something like this." Teddy turned back to how he looked to begin with.

"This is great," Aubrey said, "Think of all the trouble you can get away with!"

"We can pull so many pranks!" Lupin had mischievous look on his face.

"The possibilities are endless," Sawyer's face lit up.

"This will be the best year ever." Aubrey smiled.

**Holly: **

Holly had begun unpacking her trunk and arranging her things somewhat. The other girls were doing the same, chatting casually as they did so.

"That Lupin boy is cute, eh Pam?" the pretty blonde girl said to the blonde girl with the beaky nose- Pam, Holly assumed.

"I didn't notice." You could practically hear the blush in the girl's voice… She had noticed.

"Do you fancy Lupin?" the pretty girl called Ashley Lennox said.

Holly tried very hard not to laugh. Ashley and Pam were cousins, and had spent the whole evening talking to each other. She didn't recall either of them even talking to Teddy at any point in the evening.

"I don't know. I haven't really talked to him." Finally some sense Holly thought.

"He's cute, and he was checking you out, Pam" said the dark haired Stephanie Bagby as she came to sit on the edge of Ashley's bed. "Are you friends with him, Holly?"

Holly just wished that she wouldn't get dragged into this, but she turned to the other girls. "I just met him this morning, but he seems nice."

"I was talking to him for a bit, he's a Chudley Cannons fan, unfortunately." said Quinn Finnigan, as she continued to rummage through her trunk.

"I know, I can't believe he's a Cannons fan. Puddlemere United all the way!" Holly hoped to God, Quinn was also a fan of Puddlemere.

"Puddlemere? They're alright, I'm one for the Kenmare Kestrels myself." Quinn was grinning.

"Oh you Irish." Both Holly and Quinn burst out laughing, much to the confusion of the other three girls sitting across the room.

"Back to the matter at hand here," Ashley piped up, "Do you think Lupin's cute?"

Holly shot her the best _you're a crazy bitch _look.

"He seems alright, though I could never date a Cannons fan." Quinn began to laugh and Holly couldn't help but join her.

"…What do the Cannon's do that's so bad?" Pam looked a bit confused by the Quidditch jokes.

"Their motto's "Let's all just keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best" if that doesn't help you figure it out, I don't know what will. They've been on a hundred year losing streak, they're just terrible." Holly said, trying to keep from laughing.

"How can a team lose for a hundred years? All you have to do is score a few times and catch a stupid snitch and there, you've won." Ashley obviously didn't understand the complexities of the most popular sport in wizarding history.

Quinn launched into a long rant on the complexities of the game and how various teams used different strategies. Holly tried to add in bits of information, even though after about ten minutes she could tell the other three girls could really care less.

After about twenty minutes Stephanie put on a big, fake yawn before declaring that she was going to bed. Pam and Ashley quickly followed suit, pulling their curtains closed. Quinn and holly gave each other a knowing look, trying hard to hold back the fits of laughter.

"G'night Wiggins"

"Good night Finnigan."


	6. Chapter 5

**_Hello fellow humans. Please post your bitchy comments or your pleasant comments, because it feels as though I am talking to an empty auditorium. And for anyone who has done that before it sucks. You are being like a Thursday matinee, don't be a Thursday matinee... you can throw fruit if you have to... I haven't slept in a while... _**

**_Enjoy_**

**Chapter 5**

**Holly:**

They had to be joking… right? This had to be a joke, it just had to. It was too cruel and unusual to not be a joke. The last few weeks had been bad enough with all the giggling and squealing and other unspeakable horrors that Holly had just assumed that it had to be a joke. That was until she was woken up by Ashley Lennox and Stephanie Bagby talking about how they thought Holly had a niffler nesting in her hair. She hadn't even really talked to the girls in the past three week but they still felt the need to make nasty comments about her. She interrupted their delightful gossip session by noisily grabbing her shower kit and heading off the bathroom.

"Do any of you know any good hexes?" Holly said as she flopper onto the bench in the great hall. Teddy looked up from his Quidditch Weekly, "What for?"

"Is it those girls you room with?" Sawyer said as he put more food onto his plate.

"They're just so… icky." She followed Sawyer's example, putting food onto her plate.

"What'd they do now?" Teddy was genuinely curious.

"They were blatantly talking about me when I woke up this morning!" She stuffed some bacon in her mouth angrily. "Do I look like I have a niffler nesting in my hair?"

Sawyer looked at her, "Why don't you ask to be moved to a different dorm?"

She caught their lack of response to the question, but she was too mad at the other girls to care. "There's only one room for first year girls…" She sulked and ate some more before noticing they were missing someone… or someones, "Where's Phoenix and Audrey?"

Teddy and Sawyer burst out laughing.

"What?"

Teddy laughed as he spoke, "We changed their clocks, and figured out how to make it look dark out. They'll wake up and think it's the middle of the night. It'll be great."

"Won't they miss classes?"

"We'll let them copy our notes later, it'll be fine." Sawyer and Teddy seemed rather pleased with themselves.

"How did you make the room darker? Did you charm the windows?" Holly's interest in their magic overtook her displeasure in their pranking the other boys.

"I found a charm to tint the windows. It was a bit tricky, it had to have been at least a second year charm." Teddy said smugly.

"You're such a nerd, Lupin" Sawyer chuckled, before noticing the confused looks the other two were giving him, "What?"

"What's a nerd? I feel like I should be offended." Teddy said.

Sawyer felt a bit awkward having to try to explain muggle things to Holly and Teddy. They had both been brought up in magical homes and seemed to not know too much about non magical life other than it was 'not near as exciting'. Sawyer liked it when Phoenix was there because he would generally help to explain these sorts of things. Phoenix was a good guy, a bit nervous and awkward, but he seemed to have the best intentions. He didn't really understand why the boy's parents lived like muggles, he had lived with muggles and it hadn't been as interesting as Holly or Teddy's upbringing.

Holly loved to hear Sawyer explain muggle things, though it seemed strange coming from him, he looked too magical. If she didn't know better, she would have assumed him to be a pure blood. He had the aristocratic features most pure bloods did- high cheek bones, angular jaw, and pale as death skin. His face had a sort of grace to it that most wizards didn't. He looked like a Black or a Malfoy only with softer eyes- not as cold. Holly wondered if maybe somewhere along the line a pureblood family had a squib, disowned it and Sawyer was the product… She would have to look into it.

"What are you looking at Wiggins?" Teddy laughed as Holly blushed. She had been starring at Sawyer, not that she like liked him, that would be gross.

"I was just thinking. I zoned out." It was true… mostly.

"You just think I'm sexy, don't you?" Sawyer struck a pose, causing the three of them to burst out laughing.

"In your dreams!" Holly said, causing Sawyer to put on a rather overly dramatic pout, which brought on a new bout of laughter. Teddy suddenly stopped laughing, with a look of pure horror on his face, the others stopped too, concerned about their friend.

"What's the matter Lupin?" Holly felt a slight serge of panic.

"Dean- I mean Professor Thomas is going to kill me. I didn't finish my defense against the dark arts homework…" the other two began laughing again as Teddy pulled out his homework to hastily finish it.

"You lot are awfully cheery considering the ungodly hour," Quinn came over to the table looking rather tired.

"You look rather miserable this morning, Finnigan" Teddy said as she flopped down on the bench next to him and began to pile food onto her plate. She glanced over at Teddy's DADA homework as she grabbed some bacon, "You know question four is wrong." She said smugly as she began to tuck in to her breakfast.

"No it's not…" Teddy said, not even glancing up at what question four was.

Holly glanced over at Teddy's work, wanting to see what he had said for question four, "Yeah… I doubt the answers 'hedgehog'."

Sawyer burst out laughing and leaned over to look now too, the three of them reading over Teddy's shoulder as he wrote.

"Would you all bugger off!" he looked less than happy. The other three went back to their breakfast happy they had managed to make Teddy lose his cool (which rarely happened).

Quinn looked around before realizing Phoenix and Aubrey weren't at the table. "Where are Aubrey and my favorite leprechaun?"

"Sleeping… We charmed the room to make it look like it was the middle of the night." Sawyer said with a snigger.

"Favorite leprechaun?" Teddy asked, not looking from the page.

"He reminds her of the homeland." Holly laughed.

"The homeland?" Quinn snorted, which led to another bout of laughter.

After a few more minutes of banter and bacon they decided to head off to class.

**Phoenix:**

Phoenix woke up to the dark dormitory. It was only five in the morning? It had to be later than that? He felt unusually well rested for having just woken up at five.

He got up to use the bathroom and saw that Sawyer and Teddy weren't in bed which was a bit peculiar… Maybe they had gone off to put dung bombs in the common room before anyone woke up, or something. Phoenix went into the bathroom and noticed there was an awful lot of light coming from the frosted window… too much light. He went into the empty common room, where large patches of sunlight were coming in through the windows.

"Damn it!" he ran up the stairs to the dormitory and quickly got dressed before waking up Aubrey and hastily explaining the situation at hand. He grabbed his books, and wand, and homework, and what was he forgetting? Too late to worry about it, he'd figure it out later.

He ran down the stairs, through the portrait hole and all the way to the DADA classroom, stopping for a moment at the door to catch his breath before knocking as calmly as he could on the door. Sawyer opened the door only to receive a death glare from the rather flushed Phoenix.

"Any reason you're late Mr. Flannery?" Professor Thomas said from the front of the room.

"Someone charmed our windows to make it look like it was night time." Phoenix said it more to his shoes than to anything else.

"Did you're clock stop working?" the professor was working very hard to not smile at the prank.

"They also changed my clock, sir. But Lupin and Thompson somehow managed to make it class on time." He glared daggers at Teddy and Sawyer who were working very hard to keep a straight face.

"Take a seat, Mr. Flannery… and ten points from Gryffindor for both Mr. Lupin and Mr. Thompson." Professor Thomas said as Phoenix took his seat.

Teddy put his hand up, "De- Professor Thomas, why did you take points from us, we weren't the ones who were late."

"You didn't think to wake up your classmates." He gave them a smile that was slightly mischievous in its own way.

Phoenix smiled smugly. He could tell that the man knew it was Teddy and Sawyer, but was reluctant to take points from his former house. According to Teddy, Thomas used to play on the Gryffindor quidditch team. The boy seemed to know a lot of the professors when Phoenix thought about it. He had no idea how… He would have to do some asking.

That evening Phoenix was sitting in the common room thinking about maybe starting on his homework perhaps. He was looking over at Holly and Teddy who were playing exploding snap and debating over the very controversial Snitchnip incident of the 1586 world cup. Phoenix had the best intentions to concentrate on potions but the small explosions were making it difficult, so he closed his book and turned to face the heated debate.

"Hey Lupin…" his voice sounded smaller than intended, though it always seemed to.

"What's up Flannery?" he said turning to look at the nervous redhead, secretly glad he could stop listening to Holly correct him on every historical quidditch fact he knew.

"I'm just wondering about your family…" This seemed to catch the other boy a little off guard.

"What do you want to know?"

"Why do you live with your granny?" it was Holly who piped up as she looked at Teddy.

"My parents are dead… died in the Battle of Hogwarts." He looked away, not really wanting to see the look of pity he knew was now residing on both of their faces.

Holly did look rather pitying while she sputtered apologies for being so impolite.

Lupin gave a weak nearly reassuring smile, "It's alright. I don't even remember them. My granny is nice and I have a lot of other sort of family and a godfather, so it's not like I'm really alone."

"You have a sort of family?" Phoenix had to know. What in merlin's name was a sort of family?

"Well we are technically related I guess, but they're so far removed it doesn't make a whole lot of difference. Cause my granny is a Black, but-"

"You're related to the Blacks?" Holly seemed to not believe him. Phoenix supposed she had heard all the terrible things about the Blacks that he had heard; the insanity, the dark magic, the blood supremacy… the list really goes on. Maybe he was really rooming with an axe murderer, or at least the descendant of one.

"Well technically, my granny got disinherited from them when she married a muggle born. I'm also related to the Greengrass family on my father's side, my grandmother was one, but on a similar note got disinherited when she married a half-blood." Teddy seemed almost uncomfortable being related to purebloods and Phoenix didn't blame him, after the war there had been a lot criticism of the old families and now they were almost shunned.

"So, how did you get a sort of family?" Phoenix really wanted to know.

"Well my Aunt Molly and Uncle Arthur, who're not really my aunt and uncle, but whatever, let me stay with them sometimes during the summer or holidays, or if my granny wanted some peace or what have you, so her family sort of became my family. Then my godfather married my Aunt Molly's daughter and I became more sort of part of the family… I know it's a bit hard to follow." Teddy scanned their faces to see if they were taking it all in, which he seemed to conclude they were.

"What family is your Aunt Molly from?" Holly had a honest look of curiosity on her face.

"She's a Weasley, I think she was a Prewett before, but my Uncle Arthur is definitely a Weasley." Teddy seemed to be thinking for a moment, "As much as my Granny likes to act like she doesn't care about the practices of the noblest whatevers of Black, she sure got me to learn a lot of silly family stuff, like her gran made her do. Weasleys are nice though, least the ones I know." The boy smiled as he tacked the last bit on at the end.

"Wait so do you know about all the wizarding families?" Phoenix wanted to know all of this. He envisioned something like a large tapestry that took up a whole room just filled with names and who they were related to within all the wizarding families, but that would be silly, who honestly had that much time on their hands?

"Not really, just the old ones. When I learn about them I imagine it to be like a story, like a… I don't know the word for it, where there are lots of seemingly unrelated bits that come together in the end. Like that. With some families there's not enough drama to make up a story, and I forget it all."

Phoenix had at least a million questions, "Is that how you know all these random people? Because of family ties?"

Teddy laughed at this, "You can say that."

"What do you mean?" Holly looked intently at him.

"Well between my godfather and the Weasleys, and all their events, and they do have a lot of them, I've met a lot of people. They were involved in the Order of the Phoenix," he took a moment to look at Phoenix and smirk, "and so they had all sorts of connections to different people."

The Order of the Phoenix? Were their professors members? Was Teddy a member?

As if reading his mind, "The reason I know Professor Thomas and Professor Longbottom is because they're good mates with my godfather and my Uncle Ron, same with Quinn's Uncle Seamus now that I think about it. They were all in Dumbledore's Army together. I don't know if they ever joined the order… I've never been told too much about that."

Holly and Phoenix looked at one another, a bit shocked. Order of the Phoenix? Dumbledore's Army? It all sounded so exciting…

"Your family was in the Order of the Phoenix?" Holly was somewhere between awe and skepticism.

"Yeah…" Teddy didn't seem sure of how to react to her tone.

"That's bloody brilliant! And they were in Dumbledore's Army? " Phoenix said, yet again, leaning forward grinning.

"Yeah, my godfather started it with my aunt and uncle." Teddy seemed more amused by their reactions than anything.

"But it was started by…" Phoenix was too busy looking confused to see Teddy's grin. He had read in one of his books on the wizarding war about this. He knew that DA was started by Harry Potter, Hermione Granger and Ron… Weasley. Good God, Teddy was related to Harry Potter. He should have guessed at the first mention of Weasleys, he knew they sounded familiar.

"So your godfather is Harry Potter…" Holly obviously came to the same conclusion that Phoenix just had.

"Yeah." Teddy said as he began to pack up the game.

"Holy shit…" Phoenix couldn't help himself at that moment, it was possibly the coolest thing he'd heard all day.

"So your parents were close with him?" Holly said as she watched Teddy.

"My dad was really close with his dad. And my dad became friends with Harry after my dad was his defense against the dark arts professor" Teddy said it as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world, having your godfather be the one who defeated the most evil wizard in history… twice!

"That's so cool." Holly was looking at Teddy intently. Phoenix probably was too but he didn't care, he now had a million more questions but of course Aubrey took this particular moment to saunter over, "Hello ladies," he smirked, "Sawyer and I are going to investigate this secret passage some third year told him about. Want to come?"

"Yeah, that's awesome!" Teddy jumped up and grabbed his things, "You two coming?"

"Yeah," Holly was already holding all her stuff and grinning, she looked a bit wild at that moment. Phoenix noticed she would look almost a little feral at times, and it made him feel a little uneasy.

"I'll stay here, I've got some work to finish up." Phoenix wanted to go, but he always felt anxious wandering around the halls in the evening, even before curfew.

"Suit yourself," Aubrey shrugged and the three of them galloped out of the portrait hole, flinging wild speculations as to where the passage led as they went.

Phoenix sat back in his chair and sighed. He remembered he had some film he wanted to try to magically develop. Hopefully this batch wouldn't explode like the last batch had. He got up and headed to the dormitory, thinking about magical families and secret orders as he went. He wondered why his family couldn't be half as exciting as Teddy's.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**Phoenix: **

Operation Free the Pudding was going to be absolutely perfect, it was bound to be the best prank Hogwarts will have ever seen. All of the pudding in the hall suddenly rising up in the middle of the Halloween feast and flinging itself at the unsuspecting Slytherin table. It was foolproof! Teddy had done all sorts of research and not taking on different spells, and then hours in their dormitory showing the other three boys what he'd learned.

Phoenix got it down alright though his aim could use a bit of work. He wasn't nearly as good at charms as Teddy or Sawyer, but he was passable. Aubrey was alright if he could sit still long enough to go through with the spell, which was rarely the case.

He found an odd sort of enjoyment from watching Aubrey. The boy was a bit strange looking. He had rather long blonde hair which always seemed to have that 'just got off the broom' look, and it seemed more like a mane than anything, a bit like Holly when he thought of it only more sticking out and less curly. Aubrey was tall too and far too angular, elbows and knees and hip bones and ribs seemed to jut out of the awfully skinny boy at strange angles. He almost made Phoenix feel better about being a tad bit lanky. The boy's nose had been broken at some point in his childhood which just added another foreign angle. Add all of this to the fact the boy's movements were awkward at best and it becomes clear why Phoenix enjoyed passively watching Aubrey's antics.

That evening Teddy and Sawyer had gone down to the kitchens to see if the house elves would help them with their prank. They wanted to know if they would let them come in and cast a few spells on the puddings before the feast, as well as ensuring none of the desserts that were served that evening would be the sort that got lit on fire at the table. This meant Phoenix was left with Aubrey.

"What're you doing Flannery?" Aubrey had come over to the bed Phoenix was sitting on.

"Working out how to magically seal my trunk so that it'll only open for me," he had a few books open before him. He was trying to find something simple enough for him to do, but would still work.

"Sawyer got into your trunk again?" Aubrey was trying not to snigger. Phoenix grabbed a stack of photos taken with his muggle camera from his nightstand and passed them to the other boy, "You tell me."

There were pictures of Teddy and Sawyer in various poses wearing pink bras over their cloaks and on their heads amid Phoenix's pictures of various things and people around the castle. Aubrey had a look of admiration on his face, "Where on earth did they get those bras?"

"I don't know where they got the bras, but I know they got the camera from my trunk." Phoenix let out a humph as he leaned back against the headboard.

"Why are you mad? It's bloody hilarious." Aubrey was sniggering.

"Because I'll run out of muggle film, and I don't have any way to get more." He could ask his parents to send him some, but he wouldn't. His mother had always been a bit of a helicopter mother, watching him a little too closely and hovering around, a little unnecessarily. She would just ask questions if he were to send away for film. She would want him to send her all the negatives so she could see all his pictures, which would lead to awkward questions about his friends in braziers, and other such Sawyer and Teddy related instances.

"You could get your parents to get you some?" Aubrey suggested.

"I don't want to trouble them," he shrugged, in truth he just didn't want to trouble himself.

**Holly: **

The boys were up to something, she could feel it. They had been spending way too much time studying for them to not be causing trouble. They had been practicing the other day, all four of them, up in their dorm- practicing! It had to be some sort of elaborate prank. Probably for the Halloween feast. She hat to know.

Holly went up to the boy's dormitory and knocked on the door, enjoying the double standard which allowed her to go and harass the boys, but prevented them from coming to the girl's dormitory.

Aubrey answered the door, "A girl! Quick! Hide!" Holly walked past him as dramatically cowered, "Oh hush, Aubrey"

Phoenix was looking over at her from his bed where he lounged, surrounded by books, "To what do we owe the pleasure?" The boy grinned at her.

Holly tried to look as stern as she could, "What sort of a prank are you lot planning on pulling?"

Both boys put on their best innocent face, "What prank?" Aubrey batted his eyelashes slightly.

"We don't know anything about any sort of prank," Phoenix shook his head trying to look as blameless as possible.

"I know you're planning something, probably Lupin's idea, probably for the feast next Friday." She paused for effect, crossing her arms in what she assumed would be menacing, "So what is it?"

Aubrey looked at her, "I swear we don't know anything about a prank."

"No pranks here." Phoenix said, trying to sound casual.

Of course at that moment the door decided to be flung open, "The pranks all set!" Sawyer announced before noticing Holly standing there, "Oh shit…"

Holly laughed as the boys glared at Sawyer, "Your timing's impeccable, they just finished assuring me you all weren't planning any pranks, and I was about to leave." A partial truth- she was planning to stay there and pester them until they told her, but it sounded more dramatic that way.

"You're a git," Teddy was looking at Sawyer with a look Holly could not decipher for the life of her, it wasn't anger, or annoyance, it was something else…

"So tell me about this prank," they all looked at each other nervously. "Oh come on! I'm not going to go run and tell McGonagall!"

"Cross your heart?" Teddy looked at her, unsure.

"Cross my heart," which she did, and that seemed good enough for the boys. They launched into a detailed breakdown of their Operation Free the Pudding. After they had finished there was an excited, mischievous grin on every face in the room, including Holly's.

Sawyer spoke up first, "So you want in?"

Holly could tell the others hadn't been asked about this first, but they didn't seem wholly opposed to the idea.

"Why not?" she said. They all grinned and began talking about spell logistics and sneaking around and other such disruptive activities. Holly felt a surge of excitement, her first real Hogwarts prank. It was great!

**Phoenix: **

It was terrible! Their first real Hogwarts prank was a total mess, and not in the good puddingy way they had intended, but rather in the people cowering from dessert missiles way. Part one had gone off without a hitch. They had gone down to the kitchens and put the charms needed onto the puddings so they would all move in unison. Instead of them having to fling five tables of desserts, they would only need to collectively fling all the desserts at once. They also put a bonding charm on them so they all dropped at once in a big ball over the correct table. Then they cast an animation charm which would cause them to wiggle ever so slightly, which Sawyer thought would make the whole thing more amusing.

When they went up to the feast they the five of them were so excited they all had to concentrate very hard to keep calm, cool and collected.

They sat through dinner fairly well, only letting the occasional giggle out, but then it was time for dessert. The tables filled with all the wonderful desserts a person could think of cakes, cookies, candies, pies, and of course puddings. Just as everyone was about to tuck in, Teddy gave the signal and the five of them pointed their wands at the pudding and said the agreed upon spells. It was great, all the puddings began to rise into the air, but then things took a turn for the worse.

All the puddings began to zoom around the room like edible airplanes, which was even better than having them just drop onto the next table. It caused a bit of controlled panic, until they looked at one another and realized no one was actually controlling the flying sweets. It was just after they reached this realization that the edible airplanes went kamikaze an begun diving to attack awestruck students and teachers. The five panicking pranksters tried to stop them, but it seemed to only anger the puddings, causing them attack more forcefully than before. Everyone hid under tables, and tried to hex the puddings out of the sky until McGonagall sent out a spell which froze all the dangerous desserts in mid-air.

Just when things couldn't have gone any more awry everyone climbed out from under their tables and began to try to remove the pudding that seemed to be stuck to them… the sticking charm back fired and just caused the pudding to stick to various walls, tables, things on the walls and tables and people.

The five of them decided to try to leave without getting noticed. Lots of other students were leaving, they could casually walk out.

Right when they got to the door a very unwelcome voice came up from behind them, "You mixed a Protean Charm, an epoximise spell and a Locomotor Charm didn't you?" They turned to see the headmistress looking down at them less than amused.

A total of 250 points from Gryffindor (50 from each of them) and a sentencing of detention until Christmas later, and the five not so merry pranksters (along with Quinn) were sitting in the boy's dormitory hiding from the death glares they would surely be getting if they were down in the common room.

The Gryffindors were mad, the night's festivities had managed to not only lose Gryffindor the lead in house points, but put them in last place. Every other house was mad because they had not only been attacked by rouge puddings, but rouge puddings with a temporary sticking charm on them, which had only just started to wear off.

They were fairly certain that they were the least popular students at the moment, and were now dreading the idea of leaving the protection of the boy's dormitory.

Phoenix looked at his watch, it was nearly eleven, and he was tired. Sawyer yawned as if in response to Phoenix's thoughts, "Ladies? Would you mind buggering off? I'm tired."

The girls looked at each other before Holly spoke, "Can we sleep on your floor?"

"No" it was a dozing Aubrey who spoke.

The girls grumbled as they stood up and stretched, realizing how tired they really were.

"G' night gents" Quinn said with a yawn.

"Night," they all replied in unison making the girls giggle sleepily before leaving for their own rooms.

The boys dressed for bed in relative silence before crawling between the covers. They all fell asleep with no trouble at all.

**Holly: **

They had been kicked out of the boy's dormitory and into the rather drafty stairway. They began to make their way to their own dormitory where their beds waited for them.

"I hope they're sleeping when we come in." Quinn said, not even trying to mask the bitterness in her voice.

"They are always in bed early," Holly hoped today was no exception. The girls they roomed with were unpleasant, but at least she didn't need to spend too much time around them. She would wake up early and stay in the common room late just to avoid their sneers and pointed comments. She didn't understand. She never did anything to them, least not that she could think of. They should have been put in Slytherin.

"They're just such bitches," Quinn looked as bitter as she sounded. It clouded her normally pretty face.

"Least we don't see much of them during the day." Holly said as they got to their door.

Quinn's voice dropped to little more than a whisper, obviously not wanting any of the girls on the other side of the door to hear, "Speak for yourself, I've got potions and herbology with them, as well as flying lessons. They're terrible, they make all sort of comments to me. The worst part is they're not outright rude, just really sarcastic, so I can't tell them to sod off without sounding like I'm the troublemaker." She sighed, "I just wish someone else would see it."

"I see it," Holly said, wishing she could be more help.

"I know… I just…" the girl sighed again, "It just gets to me sometimes."

Holly hugged the girl, trying to comfort her, "Just try not to listen to them."

Quinn nodded half-heartedly and opened the door to their dormitory, happy to see that the other three occupants were sleeping. The girls changed and climbed into bed, welcoming the warmth, but they didn't fall asleep nearly as easily as the boys had. They were both thinking and it was a long time before their thoughts were drowned out by the welcome sensation of sleep.


	8. Chapter 7

**_Hello any of you who have read this thus far. I feel unsure about this chapter. I'm not entirely sold on the plot line that I've started here, so tell me what you think and where this is going, I like input. I would also love suggestions for the next chapter which will be new years. There is more info on what will be happening on new years in this chapter. _  
**

**_Sorry it's a bit dark. Enjoy_**

**Chapter 7**

**Phoenix:**

With classes and detentions filling up most of his days, Phoenix had hardly noticed the rapidly approaching holidays. One minute it was November 1 and they were cleaning the entire great hall the muggle way, and the next they were getting owls from their parents regarding their holiday plans. They were eating breakfast when the post arrived, and six owls dropped six letters onto the six friends' laps. Phoenix noticed his mother's printing on the envelope.

_Dear Phoenix,_

_Your father and I are looking forward to seeing you over the holidays. We miss you terribly and want to hear all bout school when you get home. _

_There is also some great news! Your Grandma Matilda will be coming to stay with us for the holidays. _

_Grandma and I will be sure to pick you up from platform 9 ¾ next week._

_Lots of love,_

_Mum xoxo_

Phoenix dropped the letter. Not Grandma! Please, if there is a God, let him spare anyone who has to deal with Grandma Matilda. The woman was so old she knew the recipe for dirt. She was completely nutty and nearly blind and insisted on calling Phoenix 'Fee-fee', which drove him nearly as insane as she was. The woman also seemed to think she was married to Albas Dumbledore, no matter how hard you tried to convince her otherwise,, and to top it all off she always smelt like cats and cough drops. Phoenix would rather stay at school than go home to face the cheek pinching wrath of Grandma Matilda.

"Awesome, my parents are taking me and my brother to France for Christmas!" Aubrey was smiling as he read the letter he had just received.

"Nice! I'm going to London to stay with my cousin Seamus. We're going to the Weasley's new year's party." Quinn looked nearly as excited as Aubrey.

"I'm going to be there too, my family's the one throwing the party. I can introduce you to all of my relatives." Teddy smiled at Quinn who reciprocated with enthusiasm.

"I'm jealous, we've just got a good old fashioned Wiggins family Christmas." Holly didn't look half as amused as the others.

"Don't you have a nice family?" Teddy said.

"I guess, but they're not near as exciting as yours." She looked a bit resigned.

"No one's family is as exciting as Lupin's." Sawyer smiled as they all smirked. It was true, Phoenix couldn't think of a family as exciting as Teddy's, and frankly he doubted there was one in the wizarding world.

"That's true." She laughed, "I would be scared if there were a more exciting family anywhere. They would have to train dragons or something!"

"My uncle Charlie studied dragons if that counts." Teddy grinned as everyone at the table groaned; they would need to find something dangerous that a member of Teddy's family hadn't done.

"What are you doing for Christmas?" Phoenix knew the question was directed towards him.

"I'm going home for Christmas and my Grandma Matilda will be staying with us…" he dreaded it even more now that he said it.

"You don't sound too enthused about that." Quinn said looking at the rather downtrodden redhead.

"My grandma is just terrible, and my parents are a bit psychotic and like to live like muggles. I have no real extended family, so my parents are going to go all out on a big Christmas dinner for the four of us, even though no one really wants that. They feel they need to have all this fancy Christmas stuff, but it's really annoying." Well that was more than he had intended on saying… His fork suddenly became really interesting.

"Least your family isn't muggles, even if they pretend to be." Sawyer said, "I've got to spend my whole holiday lying through my teeth about this great muggle bordering school I go to in Australia... luckily I've got a few days before my family get there so I can Google all about Australia."

He received blank stares. "What's Google?" Teddy asked with a cheeky grin, "it sounds dirty."

Sawyer laughed, "It's a search engine that-"

"What sort of muggle contraption is a search engine? Is it like the engine on a car?" Holly looked at him attentively.

"It's not actually an engine, it's a website…" more blank stares, "a web site on the internet..." Sawyer looked to Phoenix for help when he got more blank stares.

"Do you all know what a computer is?" Phoenix hoped they had at least heard of a computer before, but he figured from the blank stares, that they hadn't. "Well it's something that muggles invented so that they could put information on it, and move it to another computer… at least I think that's why they invented them. And so they put information in these computers and then it goes through the internet to other computers. And Google is somewhere you can go to look for this information… on the computer… Does that sound about right?" He looked to Sawyer who shrugged, "Sounds about right, I don't really know how it works."

Teddy looked even more confused, "Does it run on electroicity?"

Phoenix and Sawyer laughed and confirmed that yes computers ran on _electricity._ Which just lead to them explaining what electricity was, and then how telephone poles worked, and then how telephones worked, and then what cell phones were, and by the end of it Teddy, Holly, Quinn and Aubrey felt like muggle experts, even though their teachers only sort of knew how all this muggle technology worked.

"I have to bring you lot home one day so I can show you all of this muggle stuff." Sawyer was still smirking from Aubrey's question about why muggles needed a phone with them at all times if they already had one at home. Phoenix and Sawyer smiled at one another, knowing the others probably would never understand.

…

The next night Teddy and Phoenix were sitting in the common room playing wizard's chess. The others had all already gone to bed, and the two boys were on their last game before they followed suit. Teddy's knight had just smashed one of Phoenix's pons when he sat back and looked at the other boy for a moment. Phoenix noticed and looked back into the other boy's eyes, which were green today.

The metamorphmagus tried to look as consistent as possible in an attempt to not draw attention to his particular talent. His logic was "it'll be harder to use it to prank people if people can guess it's you", but that didn't stop him from changing his eye colour frequently or adding and removing freckles, scars or other blemishes. Phoenix enjoyed watching conversations where Teddy would be standing there slowly changing his eye colour while the other person was rambling on, totally oblivious. Tonight though the boy's eyes were the most brilliant shade of green and they were looking right at Phoenix.

"What?" he was feeling slightly uncomfortable.

"What are you doing on new years?" the other boy asked.

"I dunno, why?" he moved his rook.

"Want to come to the Weasley's party?"

Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yesssssssssssssss!

"Sure, I'll write my mum and see if it's alright." He smiled as casually as he could muster.

"Cool, my gran and I could pick you up if your parents don't want to make the trip; I know how your parent's seem to be against using the floo." Teddy moved his piece. "Quinn will be there too, it should be good."

How on earth could it not be good?

"Yeah, I'm looking forward to it." Phoenix wanted to run and send an owl to his mother right that second.

"Oh yeah, checkmate by the way." Teddy smirked as the other boy's king got destroyed.

That didn't matter, he was going to meet all these people who were so much more exciting than anyone in his family, and as a bonus he was going to get away from Grandma Matilda for a night.

**Holly:**

The train ride was unexpectedly fast. Before she knew it Holly was standing on platform 9 ¾ with her family. It seemed as though the last few months had been a blur. She had just been standing here saying goodbye to her mother, hadn't she?

She had just left the cottage they were now standing outside of just the other day, hadn't she? It seemed a bit surreal that nearly five months had passed since she had gone to school.

She hauled her trunk into her room and plunked it onto her bed. What now? It was getting late, she was tired. Should she unpack?

"You going to unpack?" it was Tommy. He was leaning against the door frame watching her.

"I don't know, is there a point? We'll be going back soon enough." Would she really need any of her school things?

He smiled, "You like it, don't you?"

"Like what?"

"School." he came in and sat beside her trunk.

"Yeah…" she wasn't sure what his point was.

"It's good. I was worried about you, ending up in Gryffindor like you did."

"What do you mean? Gryffindor's great. I really like it." She felt the need to defend her house. Since when did Hufflepuffs have anything bad to say about anyone?

"That's good then- that it's great." He was looking at her sheepishly.

"What is it?" she felt strange about the whole situation.

"It's just Gryffindors can be a bit… self-centred and arrogant at times, and I want to make sure that no one was giving you any trouble." He was looking at her. Tommy really did look like their father…

"I'm fine, Tommy" she said, smiling at him. Quinn and the girls from her dormitory flickered through the back of her mind. What were they doing there?

"Alright, because I want you to be okay… I worry about people who might be giving you a hard time." There was a flicker of sadness that matched the blue of his eyes.

"What is it?" She pushed her trunk over and sat down beside him.

"Nothing,"

She gave him a look, she knew there was something. She always knew with Tommy.

"I don't want you to worry, you always worry."

She scoffed, "Says the king of worry."

"Hey! The king of worry is that ginger friend of yours, every time I see him he looks like he's about to faint- more than the average first year."

"Phoenix? I guess he is the king, but you're definitely the prince. Now tell me what's bugging you." Holly looked at her brother, gauging his response.

"It's nothing, really..." It was definitely something. He got up off of her bed.

"Really?" she was getting annoyed.

"Really," he looked thoughtful, "Just remember that you mean a lot to me, Holly." He looked into her eyes before turning and leaving the room, taking any certainty Holly had with him. She was confused; there were so many questions she didn't even know where to start. The girl just sat on her bed for a long time looking out the window and thinking.

The moon was nice that night, full and low in the sky. The frost on the fields twinkled in the soft light, only broken by the moon shadows cast from the fences that cut across the fields. She wanted to go out into the night. She wouldn't have been allowed if she had asked her parents… which she had no intention of doing.

She laced up her boots which her mother had put a warming charm on and shrugged on her warmest cloak. She pulled her gloves from her dresser drawer and put them in the pocket of her jeans before opening up her bedroom window to the cold night. Her wand lay on her bedside table, and she debated about taking it with her before remembering she wouldn't be able to use it anyways. Damned underage wizarding laws. Holly slipped out the cottage window, gently closing it behind her. She slid down the roof to the point where it was closest to the ground and lowered herself down to the frozen grass.

Gloves on, hood up, over the wall and towards the edge of the trees. The excitement of being caught mingled with the exhilarating feeling of freedom in her chest, warming her and giving her energy and… existence.

She didn't get that free feeling much anymore. The stone walls of the castle and prying eyes of prefects and teachers buried that feeling. Even when she ventured outside she knew she would need to be back at curfew and that she would have to stay within the grounds. Some nights she wanted nothing more than to sneak down into the forbidden forest and discover every one of its leafy mysteries.

None of that mattered though- school could wait, her friends could wait, her family could wait, Tommy really could wait.

The forest was quiet that night. The moon was the only light to go by. She was left to trust the forest and herself in the dark. Wasn't there just as much to be afraid of in the light as there was in the dark? Did the killing curse not come out as a green light?

She walked until she got to the big rock. She climbed up onto the stone. It seemed smaller now than it ever had before. She perched atop the cold boulder, and sighed, looking up at the stars peeking through the foliage- an unusually clear night for this time of year, though she wasn't complaining. Tonight was perfect…

Something wasn't right...

The images hit her like a bag of bricks. Something was terribly, terribly wrong. She saw blood, so much blood and teeth and claws and darkness… cold darkness. Two eyes glowing in the darkness, looking into her soul. Flesh ripped and Holly heard a scream that cut through her like a dull knife.

She was screaming too. Her mind screamed out- something had happened, something terrible and she had watched it. The girl ran as fast as her legs could take her, sprinting through the trees. She had to get home. Something bad had happened and she needed to be home, right now.

She flung the front door of the cottage open, much to the surprise of her family who were all sitting in the living room calmly talking. John Wiggins looked at the panicked, sobbing, wild-eyed girl who was gasping for breath, "Holly, are-"

"Something happened!" she said her voice cracking, "There's been an attack!"

…

Holly rested her forehead on her knees as she hugged her legs to her body. She was tired, but the bed she sat on seemed daunting at that moment. Sleeping was darkness, there was no more trusting the darkness- golden eyed monsters lived in the darkness. Her vision was blurred from the tears that were beginning to pool in her eyes again, just when she thought she had run dry.

She tried to assure herself that there was nothing wrong, her parents had flooed every member of the family, and all was well. But she couldn't shake the feeling that something was awry. She had sent an owl to Teddy and another to Phoenix. She didn't know where Quinn and Aubrey were staying and Sawyer was with muggles so she couldn't send anything to them. She just hoped they were all okay.

There were hushed voices down the hall- John and Mary were talking, no doubt about her. They were worried. Hell, even she was worried, it's not normal to suddenly have visions, even for a wizard.

Holly felt abnormal and scared and alone and worried and- There was a knock on the door.

"What?" Holly's voice was hardly more than a squeak. Tommy opened the door a little and peered into the room. She looked up him from her bed.

"I just wanted to see if you were okay..." He had never seen her look less okay. She looked so small and defenceless that he nearly felt his heart break. He went into the room cautiously as though if he moved too fast she might break.

"Tommy?" the voice sounded tiny and scared, "Can you sit with me?"

Tommy went to her and sat down beside her, "Holly? Are you going to be alright?"

The girl shook her head and curled into and even tighter ball. Tommy wrapped his arms around his baby sister, "It'll be okay, I promise."

"Am I going crazy, Tommy?"

"No, you're not…" He wanted to make it better.

"Then why am I seeing things!" The girl's voice was scared.

"Some wizards have visions… it's a gift." He brushed a curl out of Holly's eyes, trying to be affectionate and gentle.

"It's a curse." The bitterness in her voice hung in the air, and clung to the silence which followed.

Tommy's curiosity finally got the better of him, "What did you see?"

She had said it was bad, it was horrifying, it was appalling, but she never had said what _it _was. She seemed unsure when she spoke, "It was just a bunch of pictures... it came in flashes." She turned to look at the older boy, "It was some sort of beast… something with claws and teeth and horrible golden eyes. Then I saw blood…" she shuddered at the memory, "I couldn't tell what it was, but it came from the darkness…"

He didn't know what to say or how to comfort her. The girl had just had a vision of someone being torn apart by a beast in the night. He had taken divination, never having believed a word of it, but then this happened. Tommy simply held his sister and smoothed her hair and tried to wish away her fears.

"You said that some wizards can predict the future?" She pulled away from his embrace to look at him.

"Yes, but-"

"What if that's my future…"

He hoped that it wasn't the case, he had to keep the thought from his mind, "It can't be your future- I won't let it be. I'll fight off any beasties that try to hurt you."

"You won't be here forever." It was strange to hear something like that come from the little girl, but she wasn't so little a girl now, was she? She was nearly twelve, and perhaps she was getting to an age she realized there was more danger out there than a bump in the night and that scarred him. He never wanted Holly to feel fear, not like he remembered feeling when he was young. He remembered when his parents would talk in hushed voices about dark lords and death and have bags always packed by the front door, 'just in case'. The girl's visions made him worry that perhaps she would feel fear far worse fear than he ever had. He had to save her.

"I will never let anyone hurt you." Tommy whispered, "I promise."

And Hufflepuffs never broke promises.


	9. Chapter 8

_**Sorry this has taken so long! I've had so very much trouble with the chapter, and I'm not really sure if I'm happy with it, even now. Please let me know what you think, I'm trying to keep this canon so let me know if I've doofed anything (other than the fact that Quinn would not have the same last name as Seamus since it's his mother who's the witch and Quinn is magical too and... bullshit.) **_

_**Hope you like it more than I do.**_

_**.**_

**Chapter 8- New Years Eve **

**Phoenix:**

Phoenix got up to look out his front window for what felt like the fiftieth time in an hour. Teddy had said that they would be fetching Phoenix at five, and it was five on the dot and they were nowhere in sight. They were wizards, what was their excuse? It's not as though they could blame the traffic.

Teddy obviously didn't understand the severity of Phoenix's situation. He didn't appreciate that it was a matter of life and death, because if Teddy didn't show up soon to save him, Phoenix would have had to Avada Kedavra himself… if he had known how to…

Christmas had been terrible. His parents had not only let Grandma Matilda stay for the holidays (which would have most likely ruined any chance of a good holiday anyway) but they also had a muggle man named Frankie staying with them. Apparently Frankie was an acquaintance of Phoenix's dad, and he had been evicted from his house at the end of November and so naturally his parent's decided to let the strange man stay with them. The man was disgusting. He was stout (which was a bit of an understatement seeing that he was nearly as wide as he was tall) and he wore a rather distracting mustache. He always smelt like muggle beer, which Phoenix's father had taken to drinking, and he would often fall asleep in the living room and snore at an alarming volume. Phoenix always felt uncomfortable with the man in the room, and had spent most of his holidays hiding in his room to avoid the company of both Frankie and Grandma Matilda.

The only gleam of hope over the holidays was that he was going to go with Teddy on New Years. But now Teddy had apparently forgot entirely about Phoenix's existence! It was 5:02, which meant he was late… Those two minutes may as well have been days because he was sitting in the same room as not only the snoring Frankie, but also batty Grandma Matilda who at the moment was rambling on about the psychic healing powers of squibs.

Just one more peek out the window wouldn't hurt anyone. As the boy got to the window there was a cracking noise from outside, and two figures were standing in the driveway. Teddy and his Granny!

Phoenix ran to the front door as fast as his awkward eleven year old boy legs would carry him, and grabbed his backpack which he had put there earlier and flung the door open.

He yelled so that his parents could hear "Bye Mum! Bye Dad!" and he shut the door before he could get a response. He didn't want a thirty minute departure where his mother cried and his father warned him of all the dangers of the outside world.

"Phoenix!" Teddy was grinning at him.

"Evening Lupin," Phoenix couldn't help but smile, this boy was freedom.

"This is my Granny, Andromeda Tonks. Granny this is my friend Phoenix Flannery." Teddy introduced them. Andromeda was a nice looking lady, not as old as Phoenix had assumed she would be. She didn't really look like Teddy, though it was hard to compare Teddy's looks to anyone. She looked about fifty, though she had to be older than that, her eyes gave the woman's age away as closer to sixty. She had obviously had a tough life. Her hair was brown and liberally streaked with grey. She smiled politely at Phoenix and shook his hand.

After the usual pleasantries the two boys each grabbed onto one of Andromeda's arms and the trio apperated to the location of the Weasley's party.

The Burrow was the strangest place Phoenix had ever been. It looked as though it was about to fall apart at any moment, and walking inside only intensified that feeling. It was cluttered with knick-knacks and comfy furniture and people… so many people. Teddy introduced Phoenix to what felt like hundreds of different people who all seemed friendly enough. There was Molly and Arthur Weasley, their six children, their six children's spouses, a total of nine little Weasleys (and three little Potters), a handful Delacours, Professors Thomas, Hagrid and Longbottom, Quinn and her cousin Seamus, a man named Lovegood, and a family of Scamanders including their little twin boys. And he was still probably forgetting someone… It was all very overwhelming.

Everyone there seemed very welcoming and receptive of the young boy. There were numerous comments about Phoenix being a long lost Weasley child, and even he couldn't help but laugh at that. The Weasleys seemed to have made red hair a dominant gene.

Teddy took Phoenix to go and hang out with his cousins after a good half hour of introductions to many of the most powerful wizards alive. Most of the Weasley cousins were fairly young, but Teddy's sort of cousins Victoire and Freddy were nine and eight respectively and didn't act quite as babyish as the others.

Teddy, Victoire and Freddy seemed to have all grown up together and had a sort of careless closeness. Phoenix felt a bit like an outsider, though both Victoire and Freddy were very welcoming. The four children played exploding snap for a while before Freddy got mad from losing (again).

"Can we please do something else?" The boy looked awfully sulky.

"Well what do you want to do?" Teddy asked with a slight twinge of annoyance in his voice since he saw nothing wrong with consistently beating Freddy every round.

"I dunno…" Freddy sank back into the chair he was occupying.

"I wonder what the parents are doing." Victoire said as she began to clean up the game they were playing.

"They have probably drunk half the wine in Devon by now." Teddy smirked.

"You could always go down there looking like one of them and start talking to them and see how long it takes for them to catch on." Victoire giggled a little.

"That'll only work if they really have drunk all the wine in Devon." Phoenix was smiling at the idea.

"Try it with Uncle Ron! It'll be funny." Freddy had a mischievous look in his eye.

"He's too tall." Teddy frowned, "I can't really change my height."

"You can always make yourself look like the eleven year old Ron, then go up to Grandma and ask for something." Victoire said looking nearly as excited as Freddy.

"The look on her face_ would_ be amazing…" Teddy smiled, "but what did he look like? Do we have a picture?"

"There's bound to be one in an album somewhere." Phoenix said, smiling at the excitement the others seemed to get from the plan.

"I think Grandma keeps the albums downstairs." Freddy said as he went off to go find one.

"I'll make sure he doesn't die." Victoire said with a cheeky grin.

After the two younger children left the room Teddy turned to Phoenix, "I'm sorry we've got to hang out with them."

"Why? They're fun." Phoenix really was having fun with the kids.

"I know. I just didn't want to seem lame for liking them." Teddy smirked, "Though I'm not sure if I like their prank ideas."

Phoenix laughed, "As long as this one turns out better than the Halloween pudding fiasco than I'm sure we'll be fine."

"Least if it goes wrong we don't have McGonagall here to yell at us." Teddy said with a laugh.

"Though I don't think I would ever want to cross Mrs. Weasley." Phoenix gave a comical shudder, "Imagine if the two of them ever met!"

"They have met! They were both in the order together." Teddy laughed, "I'm surprised they didn't just grab Voldemort by the ears and drag him off to Azkaban like that!"

"Could you imagine?" The two boys were falling about the place laughing when the lady named Hermione poked her head through the door, "Oh dear, laughter like that coming from you, Teddy Lupin can only mean trouble."

The two boys breathed deep, trying to calm themselves. "Am I really any trouble?" Teddy said, still grinning. This made Phoenix laugh even more.

Hermione smiled, "Dean and Neville were telling me about some of the trouble you and Phoenix here have been causing. You're worse than Harry and Ron were."

"We try." Teddy smirked at her.

"Just don't get yourselves expelled." Hermione said, looking the two boys over.

"We won't. We've been in detention too long to get into any more trouble." Phoenix smiled at the woman.

Hermione couldn't help but snigger at this, "Definitely worse than Harry and Ron."

"Where is Ron? I haven't seen him." Teddy said.

"I'm not sure. I came up here to look for him, actually." Her brow creased a little.

"Maybe he's with the baby?" Teddy suggested.

"Probably… He is hardly ever without the baby anymore," she smirked, "I'll go check in the nursery." Hermione walked to the door, "Oh yes, and the photo albums are on the shelf in the family room." She smiled knowingly as she walked out of the room.

The two boys looked at each other.

"How did she…" Phoenix was thoroughly confused.

"They say she is the brightest witch of the modern age." Teddy said, looking just as confused as the other boy.

Freddy and Victoire came into the room carrying a photo of a grinning and waving eleven year old Ron Weasley.

"Here you go, it's the best one we could find." Victoire handed Teddy the photo.

Phoenix watched as Teddy began to change his facial features, and after a few moments he was looking at another young Weasley.

"Can I join your ginger club?" Teddy said to his gingery company with an impish grin.

"I think we can make you an honorary member." Phoenix said.

"That'll be alright, I guess," said Victoire with a smile.

The four of them went down to the kitchen, the youngest two giggling as they went. They walked into the kitchen where Molly was preparing more food for the party. They all tried to seem as casual as possible.

"Need any help, Grandma?" Victoire said.

"Sure, dear. If you want to-" Molly turned to them and froze staring at the young Ron.

"What's the matter?" Freddy asked obviously trying hard not to laugh.

It then clicked for Molly, "Theodor Remus Lupin!"

Phoenix couldn't help but laugh with Freddy and Victoire as Mrs. Weasley began to give Teddy a list of things he would have to clean for the next week for giving her a heart attack.

It was going to be a good night.

**Holly: **

Holly looked in the mirror and sighed. She ran the brush through her hair again hoping that this time it might make a difference. Nope, no difference... She would need to see if her mother could plait it or something.

It was New Year's Eve and the whole family was coming over. That's just what she needed, concerned glances from more people than she already had to endure on a daily basis. Her family seemed to be walking on eggshells around her, as though any minute she would turn into the monster and rip them to shreds. Tommy was her only real escape. Nearly every night he would come into her room and talk to her until she was so tired that she had no choice but to sleep. That hour with Tommy was the best in her day. He scared off the monsters that hid under the bed and stalked her in the shadows when she was left alone.

Lisa seemed to be mad at Holly. She was acting as though Holly had purposely ruined her holiday. The girl would glower at her sister as though she was not even worth the space she was taking up. Lisa's reaction made Holly feel like her stomach was tied up in knots. Daniel seemed to be avoiding her. Holly figured that he wanted to be comforting when she would catch him giving her sympathetic glances, but she knew he was unsure of how to go about it. Their father took a similar approach as Daniel, spending even more time with his owls than his children. Mary seemed to think that Holly needed constant attention. She would practically follow her youngest child around, which was comforting at first when Holly couldn't bear to be alone, but soon became rather annoying.

All of these reactions seemed to intensify when Holly got her second vision. It was the night before Christmas Eve and she was sitting on her bed reading Tommy's divination basics textbook. She all of a sudden saw a dark room. A blonde woman was crying. There was yelling, "I will not kill my son!" A yell of "He's a monster!" from another man who seemed to be confronting the first. The woman just kept crying, and praying. Her rosary beads clicked as she cried and rocked, her muttered prayers in what sounded like French. The men just kept yelling and the woman kept paying and the beads kept clicking and-

Holly was being shaken. "Holly! Holly! Snap out of it!" Tommy was shaking her by her shoulders and speaking in a hasty, nervous tone. "What is it? What did you see?" He let her go, but she still kept shaking, tears were welling up in her eyes. She told him what she had seen and he held her stroking her hair. He promised her again and again that nothing bad would happen to her. His words were coming like the woman's prayers, even though Tommy knew that Holly was beginning to doubt that as much as he was and the thought nearly made him sick.

And now Holly would need to face the whole clan, all of whom knew about her "strange new gift". _It's still a curse, _she thought as she walked from the bathroom and into her small bedroom. She had begun to do more research into seers and all books seemed to believe that being plagued by uncontrollable and rather horrific visions was a great thing.

She had put on the new dress her mother had made for her that morning. It was most defiantly something Holly would not have worn if her mother had not insisted that she had done so. It was a very pale blue with flowers stitched along the hem. The colour apparently brought out her eyes but to her that didn't even come close to justifying how frilly the dress was, what with its multiple layers of crinoline and numerous bows.

"I look like a powder puff…" she sighed as she looked down at her girlish body.

"Your hair looks more like a powder puff than your dress." Holly whipped around to see Daniel leaning against the door frame in a way that was faintly reminiscent of Tommy.

"What do you want?" Holly glared at her brother.

"Can't I talk to my dear little sister?" he asked.

"Talk then." Holly crossed her arms and looked at him. They looked rather alike. Both had blonde curls, though Daniel's tended to cooperate more, though perhaps that was because they were shorter, only falling just to his chin. They had the same blue eyes, though Daniel's didn't how the naivety that Holly's did. The boy was nearly a head taller and less scrawny than the younger girl, having gained a good coating of muscle from playing quidditch.

"I heard what happened last week..."

"And what did you hear?" she tried to keep her voice cold and unwavering.

"Tommy told me you had another vision." Daniel said, moving from the door.

"So, what about it?" her voice waivered a little bit, breaking the cold manner she was trying to portray.

"Are you okay?"

"What do you care?" she practically spat the words at him.

Daniel's eyes looked over Holly, "I'm your brother, aren't I? I'm allowed to care about you."

"Yeah, I guess…"

"Tommy is really worried about you." Daniel said, not taking his eyes from the girl. "I'm worried about you," he said, more sincerely than Holly expected.

Holly decided to watch her shoes rather than her brother. "Don't worry about me. Apparently all this is some sort of a gift." The bitterness seeped into the words even before they reached her lips.

"The only one who believes that here is Lisa," he said.

"Is that why she's mad at me?"

"Oh probably, she was always an attention whore and at the moment everyone cares more about you than her." His annoyance towards Lisa was apparent.

"I never asked for this…" Holly said.

"I know that, Tommy knows that, Mum and Dad know that, but all Lisa sees is that everyone is worried about you. And it's something she just doesn't understand. She can be a real bitch over stuff like this. I remember when Tommy was made prefect and we got the letter on her birthday. Of course everyone was happy for him, but she got all prissy about it." He looked at his baby sister.

"I think she thinks I'm ruining her holiday," she sighed, "I probably am."

"She's ruining her own holiday." Daniel said matter-of-factly.

"Am I ruining your holiday?"

He smirked, "I got a new Nimbus 3100, how could my holiday be ruined?"

She laughed, "Boys and their brooms!"

"If you ever have a vision of me falling off my broom, let me know." He smiled at Holly, who couldn't help but return the smile.

"You need to start training for next year's quidditch seasons. I expect you to make the Gryffindor team, so when Gryffindor loses to Hufflepuff, I can poke fun at you for it."

"Hufflepuff hasn't won yet this year!" Holly said with a grin. "But Gryffindor is in the lead for the cup, I may point out."

"The year is still young, dear sister," he said, "and besides it doesn't matter who wins as long as it's not Slytherin."

"Isn't that the truth." Tommy poked his head into the room with a goofy smile on his face.

"I mean look at the captain of your team, you lot have no hope." Holly giggled as Tommy put on a comical pout.

"I'll have you know we are putting in a valiant effort this year… even if we have a winning streak reminiscent of the Chudley Cannons."

"So captain, what brings you up here this fine evening?" Daniel asked his older brother.

"Came to find you two, actually. Aunt Virginia just got here and everyone else should be here soon enough. We're supposed to report to the living room."

"Am I the only one who's not looking forward to this?" Daniel asked as he slumped and headed towards the door.

"No, I'm not looking forward to this in the slightest." Holly said as she sighed and tried to smooth down her hair on last time.

The three Wiggins went down stairs to the party none of them were really looking forward to.

**Phoenix: **

"Okay Phoenix, truth or dare?" Teddy had a mischievous look in his eye that made Phoenix scared to pick dare.

"Truth," he said nervously.

"Okay, would you rather kiss Holly or Quinn?" said the giggling Teddy who, at the moment, was sporting a startlingly pink perm as a dare from Victoire.

"Um… Quinn?" he blushed, having never really thought of kissing either of them before. Holly was a bit wild, she tended to look a bit feral when she got excited, and he imagined kissing her to be like kissing a wolf. Though he couldn't imagine Quinn kissing anyone, so kissing her might be more like a punch in the mouth for anyone who dared try… Oh well. "Freddy, truth of dare?"

"Dare!" the boy always picked dare, than always vowed he would never pick dare again, a vow that was broken without hesitation the next round.

"Okay, I dare you too… hmm… I dare you to ask Dominique to dance." Phoenix said.

"But she's my cousin, and she's a girl, and she's icky!" Freddy said.

"Hey! That's my sister!" Victoire said playfully.

"Are you too chicken?" Teddy said, knowing that would spur Freddy into action.

"I'm not a chicken!" Freddy said, standing up defiantly, "I'll go ask her right now!" He headed off down the stairs with the other three following in tow. He went up to the one of the many little read head girls on the dance floor and tapped her on the shoulder. The three watched from a distance as she adamantly refused, resulting in Freddy getting on his knees and begging. The girl eventually just walked away from Freddy which left him sulking as he sauntered back to the others.

"She wouldn't go for it." He mumbled, "Teddy, truth or dare?"

"Nope, you didn't finish the dare, you don't get to dare anyone." Teddy said looking rather pleased with himself.

"The dare was to ask her to dance, not dance with her," Victoire said, and everyone knew she was right including Teddy who grumbled something mildly offensive.

"Who's turn is it then?" Freddy asked.

"Phoenix's" said Teddy.

"Alright Lupin, truth of dare?" said Phoenix, who was now the one looking please with himself.

"Dare."

"Okay… I dare you… to…" he remembered something Teddy had mentioned earlier, "I dare you to go up to Mr. Potter and ask him about ministry policies." He smirked as a look of horror crept onto Teddy's face. Earlier that night Phoenix was given a warning about bringing up the ministry and their recent policies to anyone at the party. According to Teddy it almost always resulted in hours of boring talking about mistreatment of magical creatures, and misplaced authority, and shady dealings.

"That is cruel and unusual Flannery!" Teddy said looking less than amused.

"What's cruel and unusual?" Quinn said as she came over to them, having just got there.

"Quinn! Hey! Did you know Phoenix here want's to snog you?" Teddy said.

"Sorry, Flannery, you're not my type," she said with a laugh. "Oh, I'm Quinn by the way," she turned to Victoire and Freddy.

"That's Victoire and this is Freddy, they're my sort of cousins." Teddy said.

"It's nice to meet you. What are you playing?" She asked.

"Truth or dare, but Teddy just got dared to start a political brawl," said Victoire.

"Ah, so that's what's cruel and unusual." Quinn said.

"Yeah, pretty much." Teddy sighed as he got up, "but I will not be a chicken, I am a Gryffindor for Merlin's sake! Even if that means getting bored to death, it'll be a hero's death." And with that he headed down the stairs followed by four smirking children.

Harry Potter was standing talking to Quinn's cousin Seamus and Bill Weasley when Teddy walked up to them. Phoenix and Quinn came over with him, even though Freddy and Victoire kept back, suspecting things might get ugly.

"Harry?" Teddy looked up at his godfather.

"Hey Teddy, are these your friends?" Harry was smiling.

"Yeah, this is Phoenix Flannery and Quinn who's Seamus' cousin. They're in Gryffindor with me." Teddy said.

Seamus ruffled Quinn's hair much to her annoyance, "This one's parents left her with me for the holidays."

"Where'd your parent's go anyway?" Teddy asked.

"They're both researchers into cures for magical conditions. Right now they are working on a cure for lycanthropy." Quinn said.

"Isn't there already the wolfsbane potion?" Phoenix asked, he remembered reading about it somewhere.

"That's a treatment not a cure." Bill said.

"What does the ministry say about lycanthropy? " Teddy asked, knowing this will turn into a long winded explanation on ministry policies.

"New legislation was passed just the other day," Bill began, "and now I've had to register with the ministry- can you believe that!"

"You're a…" Phoenix looked at the man. The man didn't look like what Phoenix had imagined a werewolf to look like.

"No, I'm not. I got attacked by a werewolf when he was in human form, but apparently that's now cause to register." Bill said, looking rather annoyed by this.

"You had to register for that?" Seamus asked, "That's bollocks."

"I know..." Bill took a swig of his drink.

"The ministry's policies have become plain ridiculous lately. I got sent to investigate a woman who used an Expelliarmus spell. Expelliarmus." Harry said, obviously rather annoyed by this.

"On what grounds?" Seamus said.

"Apparently she might have been antagonizing someone. Turns out there was someone breaking into her house, so naturally she disarmed him. Then, about an hour of paperwork later she is let off, and the burglar is still out there." The man sighed, "Sometimes I think they are trying to waste as much of the aurors' time as possible."

"I know. I've had them come to my house three times in the last month." Seamus said.

Harry laughed, "Were you making explosives again?"

"Only two out of the three times," the man said with a slight frown as the other two men laughed.

"So what were you doing the third time?" Bill chuckled a little.

"Wasn't that when you got arrested for charming that motorcycle?" Quinn asked with a grin.

"It was something like that." Seamus said, almost proudly.

"You should have applied for the permits." Bill said.

"I did. They were denied, so I had to do it illegally." Seamus grinned, "It was great… until I got arrested."

"You three, don't listen to this one, he's a bad example." Harry said with a smile.

"As though you're a better role model! When you were their age what were you doing?" Seamus laughed.

"What were you doing when you were our age?" Teddy asked with a rather cheeky grin. Harry shot both Teddy and Seamus a look.

"In our first year he found the philosopher's stone," Seamus said.

"You found the philosopher's stone in your first year." Phoenix looked at the man with complete admiration.

"It was Ron and Hermione as much as it was me." The man shrugged it off.

"You're always so modest." Bill said as he looked at his brother-in-law.

"If you're not then you end up like The Party." The three men gave what could almost be called a bitter chuckle at that. Teddy, Phoenix and Quinn all looked at each other, obviously confused.

"What's The Party?" Quinn asked.

"Don't worry about it." Seamus said, "It's just some stupid ministry stuff."

"I'd say," Harry scoffed.

The trio looked at one another again as Ginny came up with the year old Lily wobbling in tow. "Have you seen our other children?"

"No. weren't they up with the others?" there was a fatherly concern in the man's voice.

"No, the others seem to have dispersed and I have a feeling that its James's doing," said the woman as she picked up the toddler that was trying to eat something off the floor.

"It probably is," sighed the man, "I'll help you track them down." Harry put his glass on the nearby table and followed his wife in the hunt for the children.

Speaking of children… Where had Freddy and Victoire gone? They had gotten bored and left at some point. Phoenix couldn't help but feel bad for having enjoyed the conversation with the three men. They seemed to know quite a bit about quite a bit and he felt as though it would have been great to sit and talk to them for hours, but Teddy was leading Phoenix and Quinn away to continue their game, so he didn't really get the chance.

There were questions Phoenix wanted to ask Mr. Potter, but he thought it would be strange to talk to him without Teddy there, and Teddy didn't seem to have the slightest interest in the ministry or the treatment of magical creatures or any of that. Maybe all of his parent's activism had been getting to him.

**Holly: **

As midnight approached Holly tried to keep away from the rather loud and exuberant members of her family. She had kept mostly to Tommy's side that night, knowing that everyone would have more to say to the older boy than to her. It was the one time she was more than content to be entirely in the shadow of her older siblings. A while before, Tommy had gone off with his girlfriend though, and Holly knew better than to follow them so she sat on the bench by the front window of the cottage.

She was watching the party unfold. Her family must have drunk half of the wine in Devon since they were all acting rather drunken and silly (including fifteen year old, Daniel who had been sneaking sips of drinks all night). The music was nice, she wasn't sure if it was muggle or not, but it was good regardless. And no one really seemed to be noticing her.

"Holly?" the voice was soft and feminine. Holly turned to see her aunt Virginia, who looked remarkably sober.

"Hey," she said, trying to sound just as soft and feminine.

"How are doing tonight?" her eyes were appraising.

"I'm fine, thank you. How are you tonight?" Holly gave a tight smile to the woman.

"There's no point in bullshitting me." Virginia sat down beside her niece, "I used to always be able to tell when something was wrong with your mother because she would get this look in her eyes- the same look you have right now."

"Would you be okay if you were me?" Holly tried to keep from sounding too resentful, but failed horribly.

"No, but I wouldn't lie about being okay." The woman took a sip of… was that water?

"I don't know what to say." Holly looked out over the party, not really seeing.

"And I don't know what to say to you, but I'm making an effort."

Holly couldn't help but to let out a sad laugh at that, "I guess that's worth something."

"Effort's worth an awful lot if it's genuine."

"I don't feel worth much of anything." Holly whispered.

"Then you're not putting in the effort, dear." The woman looked at Holly. There was something in Virginia's eyes that distinctly resembled sadness.

"Have you ever felt completely alone?" Holly seemed disconnected from her words as though if she thought on them she would never be able to get them out.

"More so lately than I've felt for a long time." The honesty in the woman's words made Holly turn to look at her.

"Why are you lonely?"

"Because I don't really have anyone, I haven't for years. I live alone and I hardly see anyone. Really there are a lot of things." The woman shrugged, "See, that's me not putting in the effort."

"Why haven't you ever gotten married?" Holly asked.

"Never really gotten there, I guess." She took a sip of her water, "Well, I almost got married once."

"Really?" Holly had never heard of her aunt even going on a date with anyone.

"Yes. His name was Allen… Allen Cooper. He was a muggle."

"You almost married a muggle?" Holly couldn't believe this.

"Yes, I was in love with him."

"So why didn't you get married if you loved him?" Holly had always been taught that when two people love each other they got married and had children.

"We never got a chance. Not long after we got engaged we found out he was sick with a muggle disease…Muggle diseases are different than magical ones. There's no way to cure most of them, and magic doesn't always work." Virginia looked down into her cup. "He died not long before you were born, and I haven't been with anyone since."

"Was he your one true love?" Holly asked.

Virginia chuckled a little, "There's no such thing."

Holly was taken aback by this, "What do you mean?"

"You fall in and out of love many times in your life."

Holly watched as her aunt finished the last of her water and thought about what she had said. She was too young to be concerned with love…

"Why are you drinking water?"

"It's not water," Virginia said with a wink.

"Oh…"

"Yeah… So enough about me and my problems, what are you going to do about your little problem?"

"I don't know yet." Holly hadn't really thought of any sort of long term action yet.

"You should talk to your divinations professor and maybe you can get some tutoring on how to control it." she looked at the girl, "I mean you've had two, and perhaps this is something that if controlled can turn from a problem to a gift… a bit like all magic really."

"What do you mean?"

"When you were a baby you used to throw things with your uncontrolled magic, you made a god-awful mess, but now I hear you're doing well in school, not that you can control your gift. It's all about harnessing it, right? "

Holly had never thought of that before, "That would be a lot better than how it is now."

"Of course it would be." Virginia smiled at the girl as from somewhere across the room someone shouted, "One minute until midnight!"

**Phoenix:**

"Come on, it's only one minute till midnight!" Teddy was pulling Phoenix and Quinn into the freezing cold December (well nearly January) night.

Seamus and Professor Thomas were standing in the center of the ring of people that had formed.

"Alright! Let's start the count down!" Said Seamus and with a flick of his wand a giant glowing, sparkly 20 appeared in the sky and began to count down to the New Year. Phoenix watched everyone smiling as they counted down. It was as though there wasn't a care in the word, and for a moment there wasn't. The only problem any of them were facing was what number came next.

Ten… Nine… Eight… Seven…Six…Five…Four…Three…Two…One!

Happy New Years!

Phoenix watched as everyone kissed and the sky filled with brilliant light and explosions courtesy of the two men in the center of the circle. Dazzling fireworks in enchanted shapes lit the sky. Phoenix watched in awe and couldn't help but smile.

Then Quinn kissed him and there was no debate as to who won truth of dare that night.

.

.

_**Also, a special thank you to Ryan, my sometimes beta. I send you much love and kittens.**_


	10. Chapter 9

**_It's long and a bit rough... insert dirty joke. But really, it's unbeta'd so point out all my slippy sloppy wordy type issues or just life type issues and I'll try to fix em. _**

**_Enjoy, my pretties._**

**_._**

**Chapter 9- Lost Friends**

**.**

**Holly:**

.

As Holly went through the barrier to platform 9 ¾ she couldn't help but get excited about going back to school. Even though she wasn't fond of having to say goodbye to her parents, the prospect of seeing her friends again made it all worthwhile. She had felt overwhelmingly relieved when they had all written to her over the holidays, and wanted to see them all in person again. She couldn't help but hope that the return to routine would help her 'little problem' as her mother called it and perhaps that was the most enticing prospect of going back.

Her mother had sent a letter to McGonagall explaining the situation not long after she had her second 'episode' and starting her first Thursday back she was going to be starting privet tutoring in divinations with a Professor Bramston.

She hadn't told her friends yet about her 'little problem'. It seemed too difficult to put into a letter, the words seemed to get all jumbled up in her quill and there would probably be too many questions to write anyway. It seemed more appropriate to do it in person either way, so why not on the Hogwarts Express?

Speaking of which, Holly found the compartment Teddy and Sawyer were sitting in quickly enough, and she settled herself across from the pair. Sawyer was talking about his holidays and how dull his muggle relatives were. Apparently all his cousins wanted to do was read some sort of face book and pretend to farm on one of those mysterious computers. Why anyone would want to pretend to farm with some sort of electominical box was beyond Holly.

Soon enough Phoenix and Quinn had also piled into the compartment and were chatting away about their holiday adventures, including them kissing. Now that was even more puzzling than farming muggle boxes.

The warning whistle blew. The train would be leaving in a few minutes.

"Where's Aubrey?" Holly just realized they were short one.

"You know how he is." Sawyer said, casually.

They did know, Aubrey was almost always late for nearly everything. The Professors had even taking to leaving their doors open until after Aubrey had gotten there. None of them could quite figure out how the boy could be late so often, but it was amusing teasing him about it so they didn't try to help the boy out.

The train gave another whistle before beginning to pull out of the station. Everyone waved at their parents before the train left the station. There was still no Aubrey.

"Leave it to Aubrey to miss the train." Quinn rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure his parents will apparate up to Hogsmeade when they realize they've missed the train." Teddy said as he picked at the sweater his Aunt Molly made for him. It was Gryffindor red with a large black "T" stitched onto the front, it looked quite warm.

"So how were your holidays?" Holly knew the question was directed at her and she suddenly felt very unsure of herself.

"They were alright, I guess…" That wasn't totally a lie, it was alright… more or less. The last few days had been more alright than the previous few… for the most part… vaguely.

"What happened?" there was a definite concern in Teddy's voice, he sensed a problem.

"Oh I… Well twice I had… There were these things… and there was this monster and this woman and then I panicked… now I need to go to lessons to learn to stop it…" That barely even made sense to Holly.

"What?" Sawyer was now looking concerned too.

"Twice I got these… visions," she was talking more to her feet, unnecessarily nervous.

"What sort of visions?" Teddy was sitting forward, looking at the girl.

"Well the first time it was a sort of attack."

"You got attacked?" Phoenix said, sounding rather horrified.

"It wasn't me. It was like I was watching, but I couldn't see who was being attacked or even what was really attacking. It was just sort of flashes…" Holly was trying really hard to explain it without thinking about it.

"Then what was the second one? Did you get attacked again?" Quinn asked.

"No, it was different. It was in a room somewhere… there was a woman crying and praying and two men yelling." Holly looked up to see four concerned faces looking back at her.

"Oh, that explains the letters!" Phoenix said as it dawned on him, "You were checking to see if it was us…"

"What letters?" Quinn asked, looking at Sawyer and Teddy to see if they knew what he meant. Teddy was the one to speak up, "We got letters from Holly asking us if we were well and asking if everyone in our family was alright. You wanted to make sure we were still alive."

"Pretty much," Holly flushed, "I didn't know where you were staying, or if I should send an owl to a muggle house, otherwise I would have sent you two letters too."

"Muggle houses can get owls, I send them to my parents sometimes… My mum 's scared of them though." Sawyer said with a slight smirk at the memory of his mother.

"So now you're getting lessons? In what?" Teddy asked.

"Divinations… They say I might be a seer…" Holly said, less then enthused about the extra lessons.

"Why don't you sound excited?" Quinn asked.

"Because it scared me… I saw someone get ripped to pieces and I couldn't make it stop!" she was trying to contain herself as much as possible, balling her hands into fists. There was that wild gleam in her blue eyes though that seemed to melt into sadness.

Teddy leaned forward and laid a comforting hand over one of the fist in her lap, "It'll be okay. We're all fine, see?"

"But what if you get hurt in the future?" she felt stupidly vulnerable. Phoenix looked even more nervous than usual as he let out a little squeak at the prospect of being ripped to shreds.

"Then we get hurt in the future. There's nothing we can really do to stop it." Teddy said with a shrug.

"It was probably nothing anyway." Quinn said casually, she didn't really believe in seers or prophecies.

"…It sure didn't feel like nothing." Holly mumbled.

At least Teddy cared, right? Aubrey would probably care too, wherever he was.

**.**

**Phoenix: **

.

By the time the train pulled into Hosmeade station the mood had lightened considerably, and they got back to the castle laughing and jesting… Well except for Phoenix. Holly had said she had a vision, what if it was about him? Was there a monster out there somewhere waiting for him? The thought made him feel sick… he was too young to die… too young and pathetic! He was a Gryffindor for Merlin's sake! He shouldn't be cowering from something like this, he should be charging into battle the monster. Teddy or Sawyer would charge in, they had that mentality about them, even Quinn if you gave her a good reason would charge in. Holly had seemed afraid on the train, but it almost seemed as though she was more afraid of not being able to save someone than actually getting attacked. All of them were so effortlessly brave, but for Phoenix it seemed awfully hard to be brave.

Once they came through the portrait hole the three boys (Aubrey still hadn't shown up) trudged up to their dormitory to grab their books so that they could finish their holiday homework. Each boy had taken two subjects (except for Aubrey who had only taken potions which had the most homework of any subject) over the break and completed all the work for that subject, now all they really needed to do was copy the work off of each other and they were done. It was really foolproof!

"I can't believe Aubrey isn't here. He's got our potion work and we've got to hand that in first thing in the morning." Sawyer said as they got to the door of their dormitory. He pushed the door to their room open and the boys shuffled in.

"Wait… What the hell?" Teddy said as they walked into the room.

"What happened to the bed?" Sawyer looked at the empty spot where Aubrey's bed had stood just weeks ago.

"What if something happened to Aubrey?" Phoenix felt himself trembling.

"Why else would they take his bed?" Sawyer seemed almost angry.

"McGonagall! We can ask McGonagall." Teddy said, "She'll know what happened."

They ran down the stairs and nearly bowled Holly over. They simply grabbed the girl from the common room floor and told her Aubrey's bed was missing. She led the boys as they practically flew out the portrait hole and ran to find the headmistress.

**.**

**Holly:**

.

Four frantic children beat on the headmistress's door for what felt like hours before a rather irritated looking McGonagall opened the door.

"What can possibly so important that you insist on trying to break my door down?"

"Aubrey got attacked!" Sawyer yelled frantically.

"What?" The woman looked confused.

"The boy in our dorm, Aubrey, we think he's been attacked by some sort of dark creature ma'am." Teddy said, his voice wavering a little.

"Come in." McGonagall said as she led them into her office. She motioned for them to sit as she transfigured extra chairs for them all to sit in. She took a seat across from the four of them. "What makes you think that Mr. Aubrey has been attacked?"

"Well Holly had a vision about someone getting attacked, then he wasn't on the train and now his bed and all his stuff isn't there, like he's not coming back." Teddy, being the calmest of the bunch seemed to be the one to do that talking.

"Well, he won't be coming back here, Mr. Lupin, he-"

"But the man said that he wouldn't let them kill him!" Holly said suddenly.

"Miss. Wiggins, please calm down!" she looked the four of them over, challenging another outburst. "Now, as I was saying, Mr. Aubrey is fine. He is alive and well. His father got transferred to France for work, so Aubrey will now be attending Beauxbatons Academy for the remainder of his schooling. He came in yesterday with his mother to collect his things."

The four of them all let out the breath they didn't realize they were holding. Aubrey was fine. The vision wasn't about him.

"Then why didn't he tell us he was leaving?" Sawyer said, sounding hurt.

"That is something you will need to discuss with him, Mr. Thompson." McGonagall looked at them with an unreadable expression.

"He sent me a letter…" Holly said and everyone looked at her, wondering why she got a letter when none of them did. "All it said was that his holidays were eventful and he would tell me about it soon."

"What? Why did he send you that?" Sawyer said. He was the closest with Aubrey out of all of them, and thus figured he should have gotten the letter..

"I thought he was just being friendly…" she avoided Sawyer's gaze. There was a tense silence broken by a small cough from McGonagall. "If you wish to contact him you may write to him at Beauxbatons Academy." She said with an air of finality. "And Miss. Wiggins, sometimes things are more complicated than they seem. You mustn't take your visions at face value, or someone may get hurt." And with that she stood up and ushered the four of them out.

The walk back to Gryffindor tower was awkward and tense. No one wanted to meet either Sawyer's angry gaze, or Holly's sulking one.

.

Potions the next morning lead to detentions for Teddy, Sawyer and Phoenix since none of them had the assignments complete. They all felt left down by Aubrey and not just in regards to the homework.

_._

_Dear Aubrey,_

_How's Beauxbatons? We all miss you, Sawyer especially. He's been sulking around for the past few days because you haven't been around. I don't know why you wrote to me over the holidays but not him. You don't owe me an explanation, but I think you should give him one. Please talk to him, if not for him than for everyone who needs to be around him. He's getting unbearable. _

_I wish you all the best, _

_Holly_

_._

She tied the letter to her owl and sent it off to Aubrey, hoping that he would reply soon.

Holly walked down the stairs of the owlery and onto the frozen grounds. She hoped it got warmer soon.

It was Thursday evening and she was supposed to be headed to her first tutoring session. She was feeling strangely apprehensive about this. She had never met Professor Bramston before and she had no clue what sort of work they would be doing. How did someone go about controlling their 'little problem'? Was it painful?

She walked up the stairs to the divinations classroom where her lessons were to take place. She got to the large oak door and paused before knocking. Maybe this was a mistake? She hadn't had any visions since she had gotten back. Maybe it was just a temporary thing?

The door opened and a strange looking man was standing there smiling, "I saw you coming."

Holly, slightly taken aback, followed the man into the classroom. He was not much taller than her, but much older. His hair was grey and stuck out at random angles making even Holly's hair look tame. His face was riddled with wrinkles and his eyes were a spacy grey colour.

"I'm Professor Bramston, by the way. You must be Miss. Wiggins." He stuck out his hand, which Holly shook, "Nice to meet you."

The professor summoned two chairs and gestured for Holly to sit.

"I just put the kettle on, would you like some tea?" he asked.

"Yes please," Holly said. Maybe tea would calm her nerves.

"One lump or two?"

"Two please" she said, watching the man make the tea. He brought her a cup and took the other seat, looking at her.

"McGonagall told me that you have been having visions." It was said kindly enough, but Holly felt a bit accused, "It's rare in someone so young. You are twelve?"

"Eleven, sir, until June," she fiddled with her tea cup out of a need to do something with her hands.

"So young…" he looked at her intently, making her even more uncomfortable. "We're going to need to assess you before we do anything else." He said, not taking his eyes from her.

"How are we going to do that? I haven't had a vision since I got back." She looked at him nervously, hoping this assessment wasn't going to be too horrific.

The man got up and walked over to a cabinet he had in the corner of the room, he began to rummage through its contents. "We will give you the oracle's potion which induces visions in people with the gift of foresight."

"I don't know if I want to have another vision, sir." Holly didn't, not in the slightest. "Aren't we supposed to be learning how to stop the visions?"

"You can't stop the visions, you can only tame them. You can control them so that they don't run your life, but no, you can't stop them." He said as he withdrew from the cabinet with a small vile of shimmering purple liquid.

"So I'm stuck with this?" she wanted to cry. She was stuck seeing thing for the rest of her life.

He seemed unaware of just ruining her life as he walked back to her and sat down across from her. He handed her the vial, "It's one of the more pleasant potions you will ever take."

Holly held up the vial studying the shiny liquid, it didn't look too bad, if anything it looked rather inviting. But what if she got another vision… another one like the ones she had before. She could tell Professor Bramston was watching her.

Holly sighed before opening the vile and downing the potion in one gulp. She looked at the professor for a moment before the vision hit her like a ton of bricks.

_A young blonde man is sitting at a table in a pub. He is smiling privately as he lights a cigarette. He is rather beautiful, he looks so innocent but there is a rather unsettling gleam in his eye. There is a fire there, a willingness to do anything. "You will do well, you know." He took a drag, "I'm sure he will take a liking to you, you're pretty."_

She was back in the divinations room, shaking slightly. She took a few deep breaths before suddenly being plunged into another vision.

_There is snow and merriment. Phoenix and Sawyer are laughing and running through the snow. The flakes that are falling are large and seem to cling to the jovial pair. They're different though, they are older, they look like they are nearly adults, but unlike adults they don't seem to have a care in the world. Their laughter rang out, free and full. She wanted to stay there with them, to laugh with them and run through the all too tempting snow but she felt herself being dragged back into the present. _

She was on the floor of the classroom, her head aching. She had fallen onto the floor and had hit her head. Another vision took hold even before she could fully sit up.

_Is that Teddy? Yes, that's Teddy standing on platform 9 ¾, he's not getting onto the train though. He's waving to someone, sending them off. It can't be his child, he looks too young. He's probably twenty at most… Who's he saying goodbye to? He is smiling though, rather affectionately, at whoever it is. Perhaps a girlfriend? Aww, Teddy's got a girlfriend! _

Holly's face was pressed into the wood floor. Her whole body felt drained and her head still hurt. Another vision was coming… any second now, it had to be. She braced herself. No visions came. Okay, she was back in reality. She groaned and sat up, rubbing her head.

"Are you alright?" Professor Bramston sat in the same place he had been when she had taken the potion, seemingly unfazed by what had just happened.

"I've been better," she said as she got back onto the chair that she had been sitting on to start.

"You are most defiantly a seer."

"No really?" she couldn't help but be a bit snippy. It was his fault she felt like she had just gotten beaten.

He seemed quite unaffected by that comment, "Really. Now tell me what it is you saw."

"The first one was just this man smiling and telling someone that they were going to do well. He was smoking and it was in some sort of pub. I don't know who the man was…" Her face crinkled as she tried to recall more to it.

"Do you know who it was that he was talking to? Was he talking to you, perhaps?" the man looked at her.

She picked up her tea again and took a sip, thinking. "I don't think it was to me… I don't know who it was to, though. There was something about the man I didn't like."

"Interesting…" the professor seemed to be thinking about that, "what was the next one?"

"It was my friends playing in the snow, only they were older."

"How much older?"

She tried to recall what they looked like in the vision, "I'm not exactly sure, they looked like they were nearly grown up. Sawyer was so tall and his hair was long. Phoenix looked so happy."

"Very interesting…" he nodded at her for her to continue.

"Then there was the last one." She said, trying not to smile.

"What was it?" the Professor noticed the small smile.

"Well it was Teddy, he's a friend of mine, and he was on platform 9 ¾ seeing off someone, I don't know who, but he seemed to really like them. I think it was his girlfriend." She giggled a little bit, which made her head hurt. She winced a little.

"You hit your head quite hard." It was said rather matter-of-factly.

"I can tell…" She rubbed the lump that was forming.

"That's why you're here, to learn how to control these visions so that you don't harm yourself." Said Bramston as he looked at the girl.

"What did all of it mean? Who was the man? Why did I see that Phoenix and Sawyer were playing in the snow? Is snow a symbol? Or Teddy on the platform? Why?" that was the real question- why was this happening?

"Really, I can't give you an answer. The future is unpredictable."

Holly nearly laughed at this, "It's your job to predict the future."

"Weathermen predict the weather, but they are often wrong." The man said. Holly had no idea what a weatherman was, it was probably a muggle thing.

"I need to learn how to figure this out. What if that man was bad, I got a strange feeling from him, what if he hurts someone? I could try to stop it." Holly said.

"It's often the measures we take to prevent the future that cause the things we see. That is nearly always the problem with young seers. You all want to prevent things you know little about." The professor sipped his tea.

"If we can save them, why shouldn't we?" Holly said, defiantly.

"Have you ever heard of a time turner*?" the professor said calmly.

"Yeah, it allows someone to go back in time." She had read about them somewhere.

"Well when someone uses a time turner they must not interfere with the past if they can help it. When the time traveler knows what's going to happen they have to try to keep the continuum by keeping the past the same. This will allow the future to progress as it should. The same applies to when someone has visions of the future, they must not try to prevent what they see, but rather accept that it will happen, and be prepared when it does."

Holly's mind was spinning a little, and she doubted all of that was from the fall.

"Now I think what you really need tonight is some rest, and perhaps a trip to the hospital wing." The professor said, "What I want you to try to do for this week is to will yourself to have a vision. You should lie in bed, meditate and see if you can induce a vision."

"I don't really want any more visions, sir." Holly wanted to stop them, not induce them.

"Once you can will yourself to have a vision, you can stop yourself from having one." The man stood up, and Holly followed suit. "If you have any questions, feel free to come and see me."

"Thank you," Holly nodded, which caused her head to spin a little, before walking out and heading to the hospital wing to get the small mountain on the back of her head examined.


	11. Warning

**_Dear Readers,_**

**_Okay, if you've stuck it this long (or you followed the author's note in chapter one) you have probably come to a few conclusions. _**

**_1. _****_I have a lot of OCs… I know, I know, no one likes an OC, they aren't canon, they tend to be projections of the reader, or rather what the reader wants to be, etc. I get it, I never read OC if I can help it, but I would like to say that there is no one canon who is the same age as Teddy. I needed to put some other people in the ring with him, otherwise it would be Teddy sitting around, not doing much, and not really interacting with anyone. Which is lame, and transitions really well to…_****_2. _****_Nothing has really happened yet. I know I have given you 10 chapters, but nothing outstandingly exciting has happened yet, so allow me to explain myself. Interesting things will start happening. As of this chapter (once I get around to writing it). We are going to be going on a little bit of a Teddy and Holly save that day kind of adventure, starting this chapter. There are about three healthy sized chapters left in year one, I assume, then there will be a long ass time gap, which I assure you has a purpose (frankly I don't want to write another 35 chapters of nothing, and years 2-4 in my mind would be just that). As of about chapter 15 Teddy and company will start year five with all sorts of new issues and things to think about, all of which I have been subtly referencing these first 10 pointless chapters. Yet again, I assure you, things will get more exciting, and substantially so. Which brings me to…_****_3. _****_Things are going to start getting substantially heavier… From about chapter 12 till I finish the story really. I will definitely be inserting fluff and humor as best as I can, but I'm warning you this is not a feel good story. Which I'm going to try to make transition to…_****_4. _****_I've been feeling really shitty about neglecting this story as of late, which is why I'm posting this long winded explanation. That, and I feel I'm probably going to start losing people if I don't explain myself. _**

**_You are all lovely, except for those of you who are not, but I'm in no position to point fingers, so for the sake of flattery and continuity, you are all wonderful. _**

**_Oh yes, and I'm going to change to Holly and Teddy POV for now, because Phoenix doesn't do near as much as Teddy in the coming chapters, just so that you are aware. _**

**_Love and kittens, _**

**_potato-magic _**

**_Xoxoxo_**

**_._**

.

.

**Teddy: **

**.**

Quinn was the first one to have a birthday that year. Her birthday was January 17th, and in addition to all the candy that our smirking heroes had bought her over the Christmas break, they decided they would present her with the best prank in the history of Hogwarts as a sort of birthday gift. They held a secret meeting one evening in the boy's dormitory, with the four of them sitting in a circle on the floor plotting the best prank ever.

"So we need something even bigger than the great pudding heist of 09." Sawyer said with a grin as he leaned back against the foot of his bed.

"More like the pudding debacle of 09…" Phoenix muttered.

"You're just sulking because you had detention with Professor McGonagall." Said Teddy with a smirk.

"She scares me…" Holly made a face.

"She's not too bad, just really old," said Teddy.

"You're just saying that because you got detention with Professor Thomas." Sawyer said, "You were probably hanging out while Phoenix was being terrorized."

"McGonagall _is_ absolutely terrifying." Phoenix sighed.

"She's bound to retire any day now," Sawyer smirked.

"What if we spike the staff's pumpkin juice at breakfast so they all fall asleep in the middle of teaching?" Teddy said as the idea dawned on him.

"Or what if we spike their juice so that they all fall asleep in the middle of breakfast? Just think their faces in the scrambled eggs." Holly grinned at the thought.

"Or what if we give them sleeping drought at dinner and…" Sawyer began.

"And they can have a peaceful sleep?" Phoenix said with a smirk.

"No, we'll give them like the draught of living death or something, and they will all fall asleep for the whole day, and we can take Quinn's whole birthday off." Sawyer seemed very excited by this.

"Where on earth are we going to get a draught of living death?" asked Holly, "It's really ridiculously hard to make, and if we mess it up then we could kill them."

"So we pinch it from the potions storeroom next class," Sawyer said, as though it was blatantly obvious.

"It's still dangerous," Phoenix said with a look at Sawyer like he was suggesting poisoning the professors.

"Sleeping potions are difficult. We would need to make sure that it was only the staff that got the potions, and that they all got the same amounts, and that they didn't have too much. It's too hard to predict…" Holly said as she leaned back against the trunk that sat at the end of Phoenix's bed. "I mean if we put it in the juice itself then some people might not have any, while others will have three or four glasses."

"Thank you Professor Wiggins," said Sawyer with the slightest sneer. "Now, we need to figure something to do on behalf of Quinn."

"If only we could string Lennox up the flag pole by her stockings, I think Quinn would appreciate that." Holly grinned at the idea of the blonde bitch hanging from a flag pole.

"Greg Lennox? The seeker? What does Quinn have against him?" Teddy looked rather confused.

"Not the seeker, the blonde girl in our year. Ashley, I think her name is." Phoenix said.

"What does Quinn have against Ashley Lennox?" Sawyer asked.

Holly gave Sawyer a look that he couldn't quite figure out. "Maybe it has something to do with the fact she's a total cow."

"Is she?" Sawyer asked, "What does she do?"

"She's mean to Quinn." Holly said as though it was obvious.

"What? Why?" Teddy asked, looking perplexed.

"What did Quinn do to her?" Phoenix also sported a rather confused look.

"Quinn didn't do anything to her." Holly felt a bit uncomfortable telling them this.

"Maybe she's just jealous?" suggested Phoenix.

"Why would Lennox be jealous?" Teddy was starting to look angry.

"Maybe it's because Quinn's nicer, smarter and more talented than Lennox?" Sawyer was now, also, looking a bit annoyed.

"Probably something like that…" Holly said, looking down. She knew why they talked about Quinn, but she figured the boys wouldn't understand. Lennox and the other girls in their dorm tended to pick on Quinn for a number of reasons, one of which was her tendency to hang out with Teddy and Sawyer, who the girls seemed to fancy. But they also harassed her for her boyish tendencies. Quinn was not a particularly attractive girl. She had pale skin which was littered with freckles, a rather large nose, and dark eyes which were also a bit oversized. Her hair was rather awful too; it was mousey, short and tended to stick out at strange angles. For an eleven year old girl she was abnormally well versed in quidditch, exploding snap, and general gallivanting. She was also very vocal about her dislike of the skirts they had to wear under their robes, which Lennox and the other girls thought were great. Needless to say the girls had plenty of fodder.

"Well we need to show this bint what's what!" Sawyer said, sitting up with a slightly dangerous look in his eyes.

"What can we do to them?" Teddy asked, looking determined.

"What if we turn their hair green?" Phoenix suggested.

"That's not enough," Sawyer said, obviously thinking about it. "What if we charm something really annoying to follow them around?"

"Like what?" Holly asked. She hated to admit it, but she was getting excited by the prospect of pranking those girls.

"What about Beagles?" Phoenix suggested, prompting all the others to stare at him.

"…Beagles?" Sawyer looked confused by the suggestion.

"It just came out…" Phoenix was too busy turning a violent shade of red to notice Sawyer's grin.

"You know, that might just be what we were looking for." He said with a wicked look in his eyes that could only many beagle related tomfoolery.

.

**Holly: **

.

That night Holly crawled into bed with visions of pranks dancing in her head. The plan really was simple, they were going to get three beagles (they hadn't quite figured out how they were going to do this yet, but might I digress), and they were going to charm the girls to be completely irresistible to beagles (they hadn't quite figured out how to do that part either, but Teddy was going to look into it), and then they were going to get the beagles to follow the girls around and bark at them constantly for a whole day (they weren't really clear on that bit either, but Holly trusted that the boys would resolve all the details).

She was quite tired and sleep claimed her quickly.

.

_There is a brightly lit room with quaint furniture decorating the space. It looks rather cozy really, with a soft bed and cheery light pouring in through the windows. As she turned around to take in the rest of the room, she spotted a sad, scarred looking boy. It was Aubrey, a pale, sick looking Aubrey. He looked as though he hadn't eaten in weeks, his sickly looking skin was pulled tight across his bones, and his cheeks and eyes looked hollow. There were dark rings under his eyes as though he hadn't ever used that lovely looking bed. Holly's heart was beating fast as he walked over to the mirror hanging on the wall over the dresser. With thin, shaking fingers he undid the button up shirt he was wearing. As soon as he cast the shirt aside Holly gasped. His starved body was covered in horrible scars, some of them looking very new, perhaps not even a day old, while others had already turned to angry looking markings. _

_Aubrey ran a finger across a particularly nasty looking scar that ran all the way across his shoulder. Holly was terrified, she wanted to run over to him and take him away, save him from whatever it was that was hurting him. _

.

"Aubrey!" Holly was screaming and tossing in bed.

Quinn shook her, "Holly?"

"No! Aubrey! No! Please!" Holly was thrashing, still asleep.

"What the hell is going on?" the shout came from the bed across from Holly. The other girls had woken up from the screaming and lashing out coming from Holly. And they were peering over to see the girl in the midst of her fit.

"She's having a nightmare," Quinn shot at them before turning back to Holly. She shook her with a bit more force, "Wake up Holly!"

And just like that her eyes bolted open and her fit ended. The ringing in the dorm from the yelling had instantly ended, and the silence that followed was chocking. She was trembling now out of fear, as she was gasping out, choked sobs. Holly's large doe eyes were brimming with tears, "Quinn?" he voice was little more than a squeak.

"Are you okay?" Quinn was very relieved that Holly was conscious.

"I… I'm alright." Holly sat up, shakily.

"What on earth were you dreaming about?" Lennox asked. Her eyes were fixed on the other girl, as though she thought any second Holly would jump up and attack her.

"It was about Aubrey…" Holly looked down intently, not wanting to meet the judging looks that the other girls were giving her.

"Aubrey again?" Quinn looked at her friend, concerned by the Aubrey dreams. She recalled the vision Holly had had over the holidays.

"Yeah…" Holly shakily slid off her bed.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Quinn asked.

"I need to get some fresh air." Holly said, still not looking up. Her voice was as unsteady as her legs.

"Okay, let me go with you." Quinn said as she hopped up from Holly's bed.

"No…" she picked her cloak up, off the end of the bed where she had tossed it earlier that night. "I'm sorry; I just need to be alone right now."

"You don't look too good," Pam said as she watched Holly's shaking hands as they fastened the clasp on her cloak.

"I'm fine, just go back to bed." The words were a bit harsher than Holly had intended, but she didn't care. She slipped on her shoes and went out the door without looking at any of them. She needed to walk, to think and to breathe.

She clung to the banister as she walked down the stairs, her legs still not entirely stable. Walking became simpler as she slid out of the portrait hole, and began to wander the halls.

_It was Aubrey, _she thought, _it was Aubrey and McGonagall lied to us… but why? What is he hiding and why is McGonagall covering up for him? Did he get attacked again? Was the first attack even him? What if that wasn't from an attack? If it wasn't then what was happening to him? What if someone was hurting him? What if his parents were hurting him? How could she help him if his parents are hurting him and McGonagall is covering up for them? Shouldn't McGonagall try to save him from his parents? At least he was at Beauxbatons… unless it was the people at Beauxbatons who were hurting him. What did the French do for discipline? _

She was so lost in her train of thought, that she didn't realize she was at the base of the astronomy tower until she had begun to mount the stairs. She felt a need to see the sky, as though the sky would hold the answers to the questions which haunted her.

When she got to the top of the tower she scanned the space for any sign of people who may potentially pester her, and when she saw no one she went over to the opening in the wall which presented the clearest view of the sky and particularly, the moon. She leaned against the banister and looked out over the sky.

All the stars were out that night, and there was not a cloud in the sky. It was a cold night, but it was crisp and dry, and she breathed the air in greedily. That night was the sort that bites at your nose and sends shivers down to your bones. The moon was bright and full, and it cast ample light over the grounds of the castle. The moon was eerily similar to the one that had lit her first vision, only a month ago. A shiver passed through her, and this time it was not entirely from the cold.

"Holly?" A tentative voice called out in the dark. The girl turned to see Teddy looking at her with an unreadable look on his face.

"Hey…" she tried a smile.

Teddy came up and leaned against the banister beside her, "So what brings you here tonight?"

"I had a dream… well a vision." Holly fiddled with the sleeve of her cloak, "I just needed to go for a walk, and I ended up here… What brings you here? Trying to figure out how to tame beagles to do your bidding?"

Teddy let out a little chuckle, "No, I think Sawyer got a little carried away with the beagles, to be honest."

Holly studied him for a moment, "So why are you up here in the middle of the night, if not beagles?"

Teddy looked out over the grounds, "… I don't know. I couldn't sleep, and I felt the need to come up here and look at the sky."

"The sky must have a real draw tonight." Holly said as she followed his gaze, taking in the landscape.

"It's the moon," he said as he pointed at the orb which gazed down at them, lazily.

"It must be…" She said as they both watched the moon.

A comfortable silence passed between them as they basked in the lunar glow. The stillness was eventually broken by Teddy, "What was the vision?"

"Oh…It was Aubrey."

"Again?" he turned to look at her.

"We don't know if it was him before." Holly played with her sleeve again.

"What was it this time?" Teddy had an edge of concern in his usually gentle voice.

"I think someone's hurting him…" she didn't look at him.

"Why do you think that?" the concern overtook his voice.

"He was all cut up and scarred and looked like he hadn't eaten or slept in weeks. I was scared, because he looked so… hurt."

"You think someone's hurting him?"

She looked down at her hands and nodded sadly, "Something's hurting him, but I don't really know what to do. We can't go to McGonagall, she brushed us off last time, and we can't go to his parents because they might be the ones who are doing this to him."

"We could always write to Beauxbatons… maybe they could help us?" Teddy said.

"What if they're the ones who are doing this?" Holly looked down again.

"I doubt it." Teddy's brow creased as he thought about this.

Holly sighed, "You should have seen him, Teddy. He looked like he had been torn to pieces."

"Maybe it was all part of the attack that you saw before, but maybe it hasn't happened yet?" he asked.

"I really hope… maybe we can keep it from happening." Holly sighed; she remembered what Professor Bramston had told her about trying to control the future. But isn't it true that those who control the present control the future? Masters of your own destiny and all of that…

"We can write to Beauxbaton in the morning, and see what they've got to say about it…" Teddy said as he looked at the girl beside him. A silence passed between them, filled with steady breathing and glances over the frost bitten land below.

"Have you heard from him?" Holly's voice was soft and small.

"No… Have you?"

"Just that once after I wrote him." She said with a sigh. Teddy gave a nod, knowing what she was referring to. After she had sent him the letter asking him to explain himself to Sawyer she had gotten a letter back. It was short and left her with more questions than answers.

.

_Holly, _

_Please tell Sawyer that I am fine. I moved to France because my father got transferred here, that's all. I'm sorry if I worried him, I should have written when I found out. Maybe one day I will be able to give you a better answer. _

_ Aubrey_

_._

When she showed Sawyer the letter he had gotten even angrier with the absent boy. It got so bad that everyone had stopped even mentioning Aubrey around Sawyer for fear of him throwing a fit. Holly understood to an extent, Aubrey had just up and left without giving word to any of them, he didn't respond to any of their letters, save the one which Holly had sent, and he had mentioned a better answer, implying that there was a better one to be had. It was all so puzzling...

Teddy broke her train of thought, "I could always ask Harry to look into it, and see if he could find any information in all of this."

"Do you think he would?" It was probably their best shot at helping him. How could things possibly go wrong with Harry Potter on their side?

"If I told him what was up, he might." Teddy shrugged.

"I think that would be a good idea. Between him and Beauxbatons someone should be able to help us." Holly said.

Teddy bit his lip as though he was thinking of something particularly difficult. Holly noticed he looked sad that night, his hair was a dull brown and was hanging in his face, his eyes were lacking some of their usual sparkle and his face was without any of the usual 'pizzazz' that he usually put into it.

"What is it?" Holly asked.

"We shouldn't tell Sawyer about this until we've gotten all of this figured out." He didn't particularly like the idea of not telling one of his best friends what he was up to, but he also hated seeing Sawyer upset.

"Maybe we should just keep this really quite…" Holly also didn't like sneaking around, but she figured the others would only make things more difficult.

"That's probably for the better." Teddy sighed. The pair stood there for another minute before the door opened and a rather annoyed looking Ravenclaw prefect came in, causing them to whirl around. Busted.

"What are you two doing up here?" he looked them over.

"I had a nightmare and needed to get some air…" Holly looked at her feet.

"You do know the astronomy tower is out of bounds, don't you?" the prefect said, his badge gleaming in the moonlight.

"Yeah… I just needed to come up here." Holly was mumbling more than talking. The prefect turned to Teddy who was looking surprisingly nonchalant, "What are you doing up here then?"

"I couldn't sleep, so I came up here and found her." Teddy gestured to Holly.

The prefect looked them over again, assessing their stories, "You both Gryffindors?"

They nodded.

"Alright, twenty points from Gryffindor." Holly looked up at that. "And get back to bed before a teacher finds you and you get detention." He said as he held the door open to allow the pair through before he followed them down the stairs that led out of the tower.

The walk back to the portrait hole was a quiet one, neither Teddy nor Holly were quite sure of what to say to the other. All they knew was they were going to be embarking on their first ever secret adventure and that thought scarred Holly. She was a Wiggins after all, and Wiggins never went on adventures.


End file.
